China, Taiwan hold landmark talks

Beijing - Negotiators from China and Taiwan on Thursday held the first formal talks between the two sides in nearly a decade, beginning a process that is expected to pave the way for improved relations.

"Since March this year, positive changes have taken place in cross-Strait relations," Chen Yunlin, chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait
(ARATS), said at the start of the talks.

"As wished by people on the two sides, the talks resumed today after nearly 10 years' suspension," the Chinese government's official Xinhua news agency quoted Chen as saying.

"We feel the great responsibility of this glorious mission and we must spare no effort in realizing the aspirations of people on the two sides," he said.

Chen's counterpart, Chiang Pin-kung of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), on Wednesday said he hoped the talks would "achieve a win-win situation so that people across the Taiwan Strait can live better".

Chiang called his four-day trip a "journey to build mutual trust" with China, a long-time rival of the island since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.

The talks were arranged after Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) replaced pro-independence Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.

The two sides held their first talks in 1993 in Singapore, but China suspended dialogue in 1999 after former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui insisted on a "special state-to-state relationship" rather than accepting China's right sovereignty over the island.

Weekend charter flights and tourism were scheduled to be discussed on Thursday between the SEF and ARATS officials, who represent the two sides in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Chiang, who led a 19-member delegation to China, is expected to sign agreements with Chen on Friday and meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on the same day before returning to Taiwan on the weekend. (dpa)

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