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Taiwan envoy in China for historic talks
2008-06-12
BEIJING (AFP) - Taiwan's top China negotiator arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for historic talks in which the two rivals will seek to build on a recent improvement in once icy cross-strait relations. Chiang Pin-kun, who is leading a 19-member delegation, is looking to rekindle direct trade and transport exchanges between Taiwan and China for the first time since they split in 1949 after a civil war. He is scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin on Thursday, in which both sides will discuss launching weekend charter flights between China and Taiwan, and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. Both parties will sign an agreement on Friday, Xinhua said, when Chiang will reportedly meet President Hu Jintao. Chiang earlier Wednesday pledged to conduct the talks on the basis of "rationality, equal footing and dignity" in order to pursue peace and prosperity for both sides. "We will put Taiwan and the people's interests first during the trip of cross-strait trust-building and negotiations," he said before departing from Taiwan. The first top-level dialogue in more than ten years comes just weeks after China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became president of the self-ruled island in May. China and Taiwan held landmark talks in 1993 in Singapore but dialogue was subsequently suspended by Beijing. China still claims Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification and has in the past threatened to invade if the island declares independence. Those threats were ramped up during the eight-year reign of Ma's predecessor Chen Shui-bian, whose pro-independence rhetoric angered the mainland. The rivalry between the two sides has been one of the most enduring threats to regional and global stability, with each party spending billions of dollars preparing for war against each other. But Ma's election has seen a dramatic thaw in icy relations, culminating in Hu meeting the head of Ma's Kuomintang party, Wu Poh-hsiung, late last month, when they agreed to resume the talks. During his visit, Taiwan's Chiang is due to visit a cenotaph containing the personal effects of Sun Yat-sen, the co-founder of the Kuomintang, Xinhua said. He will also visit Olympic venues. Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, which charts Taiwan's mainland policy, hailed the trip as opening "a new page in history." "We hope that Chiang and his delegation... will lay the basis to stabilise ties and normalise exchanges across the strait," she said.
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