China, Taiwan hold direct negotiations after decade-long freeze

Beijing, June 13 Kyodo - China and Taiwan held official negotiations here Thursday after a nearly decade-long freeze on government-level, face-to-face dialogue, with Chinese and
Taiwanese negotiators saying their initial round, focused on expanding
cross-strait charter flights, went smoothly.

Setting aside nearly 60 years of rivalry, representatives from the two sides
are attempting to hammer out a pact on establishing direct charter flights and
another one on tourism links across the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese and Taiwanese negotiators said they are nearly ready to conclude a pact
on the flights, which is expected to be signed at the end of the two-day talks
Friday.

The direct flights are expected to start by July, with 36 flights from Friday
to Monday. Also being discussed are plans to allow up to 3,000 Chinese tourists
into Taiwan daily, also by July.

''All items on the negotiating table for the flights were agreed on,'' Sun
Yafu, vice chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan
Straits, or ARATS, said following the first round of talks in the morning
between the association and its Taiwanese counterpart, the Straits Exchange
Foundation, at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

''The positive outcome of the first round will help the second round to go
smoothly, as well,'' Sun said.

The two sides are also expected to agree at the talks to open up representative
offices in each other's capitals to facilitate cross-strait people-to-people
exchanges and travel.

Last month, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan told
Kyodo News the offices are needed to deal with various issues that arise as
direct exchanges between the two sides increase.

Taiwan's office in Beijing would be run by the Straits Exchange Foundation,
which falls under the council, while China's office in Taipei would be run by
ARATS, which is under Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office.

Sitting opposite Sun at the negotiating table in Beijing was the foundation's
Secretary General Kao Koong-lian, who also said the talks so far were
proceeding smoothly.

''We hope the second round will help us to achieve a balance in the exchange of
tourists,'' he said.

Currently, no direct air, shipping or tourism links exist across the strait.

Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Chiang Pin-kun and ARATS director Chen
Yunlin are expected to sign the pacts on charter flights and tourism links.

Chiang is also scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Established in the early 1990s, the two bodies are charged with handling direct
cross-strait conduct on behalf of Beijing and Taipei, respectively, in the
absence of official ties.

Kao was flanked by two vice Cabinet ministers during the first and second
rounds of talks -- the highest-ranking Taiwanese officials to ever participate
in face-to-face talks with Chinese officials.

Thursday's talks marked the first time the two sides have conducted talks after
a nearly decade-long freeze on direct negotiations.

The last time a Straits Exchange Foundation chairman met with an ARATS director
was in 1998, when Taiwan's Koo Chen-fu held talks with China's Wang Daohan,
also at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, and hammered out a series of mostly
technical cooperation agreements, ranging from the handling of mail to fishing
rights.

Further talks, however, stalled after then Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui
defined cross-strait ties as a ''special state-to-state relationship,'' a term
that infuriated Beijing.

Bilateral negotiations remained frozen under the last Taiwanese president, Chen
Shui-bian, who riled Beijing by pushing to formalize the island's de facto
sovereignty.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since a civil war ended in 1949,
with the former since claiming the latter as part of its territory and
threatening to attack the self-ruled island should it formalize its de facto
independence.

The revival of talks and goodwill stems from the May 20 inauguration of the
island's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, who is wooing China as a means to remedy
the lack of cross-strait links.

Central to Ma's ''China-friendly'' approach is the assertion that Taiwan and
China are ''one China'' but that the meaning of such unity has been left up to
each side to interpret.

According to Chinese state-run media, Chiang on Thursday invited Chen to visit
Taiwan and Chen accepted. Chen did not say when he would go to Taiwan, saying
only that he would visit ''at an appropriate time,'' Xinhua News Agency
reported.==Kyodo