Taipei - Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Monday expelled two senior members, just days after suspending their membership rights for attending a cross-strait forum in China.

The party, which has a strict rule against contacts with China, had on Thursday decided to ease its punishment against the two by stripping their rights for three years instead of expelling them, due to mounting criticism that it was too harsh.

But it reversed the decision Monday after they criticized the party for harbouring an outdated mindset and being unfair to them.

"What they said after they were stripped of their membership rights on Thursday seriously damaged the reputation of the party, and for this, we decided to expel them," said Chen Chin-teh, head of the party's disciplinary Central Advisory Committee.

The DPP originally announced last week it would expel Hsu Jung-shu, a former DPP parliamentarian, and Fan Cheng-tsung, a former Council of Agriculture minister, for attending a high-profile cross-strait forum held on July 11-12 in the southern city of Changsha in Hunan province.

The pro-independence party stressed that the DPP did not have any role in the forum as the meeting was held by Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. It said the agreements at the forum on expanding entertainment, cultural and education links were aimed at cultural unification and ultimately political reunification.

Hsu and Fan, however, claimed the party was unfair to them because it failed to suspend the rights of other heavyweight members, including Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu, who had also visited China.

They also criticized the party for failing to heed public opinion and refusing to have more contacts with China.

In a recent opinion poll in Taiwan, more than 64 per cent of some 1,000 respondents found the DPP too conservative in its China policy and want to see an increase its contacts with Beijing.

Taiwan and China have been rivals since the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing considers the island a part of China that must be brought back into the fold eventually.

Cross-strait relations, however, have improved in the past year since China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May and adopted a policy to engage the mainland. (dpa)