CHINA:MAINLAND CHINA and the self-ruled island of Taiwan made a small yet historic breakthrough yesterday in their first round of talks in nearly a decade when the two cross-strait rivals agreed to set up the first representative offices in each other's territory.
The aim of the talks is to improve relations across the Strait of Taiwan, one of Asia's diplomatic hotspots.
The breakthrough means China and Taiwan will set up offices to facilitate travel and they are also hoping to establish direct weekend charter flights and increase the number of mainland Chinese tourists allowed to visit Taiwan. Direct flights are limited to major holidays, with a quota on the number of mainland tourists.
There are no diplomatic ties between Beijing and Taipei, so regular government-to-government talks are impossible. Instead the two sides communicate via semi-official bodies. The talks are set to run until June 14th.
The discussions were stopped in 1999 when Taiwan's then-leader Li Teng-hui angered Beijing by leaning towards formal independence. The Communist Party chased the Kuomintang Nationalists out of the mainland to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949, and still considers the island a rogue province that it is prepared to recover by force if necessary.
The two former allies have discovered common ground in opposing former president Chen Shui-bian's DPP, which espoused greater independence from the mainland, and bilateral relations have warmed considerably since the election in March of Ma Ying-jeou, replacing the more independence-minded Mr Chen, whom Beijing detested.
China's chief negotiator Chen Yunlin has accepted an invitation to visit Taipei on an unspecified date later this year. "As long as we have mutual trust and understanding . . . these talks are going to become an important communication mechanism for cross-strait development," said Mr Chen.
The Chinese government is also keen to present a more positive face to the world with two months to go until the Olympics and the usual sabre-rattling is unlikely at this point. China has offered a "one country, two systems" solution, just as it has in Hong Kong. Any references to the Taiwanese parliament or independence or government are always carried in quotation marks to denote China's refusal to accept any measure of independence in Taiwan.
Mr Ma favours closer ties with China and, when he took office in May, said maintaining regional stability was his priority, both messages which were welcomed in Beijing. President Hu Jintao met the head of the Kuomintang in Beijing, the most senior meeting between the two sides since they split nearly 50 years ago.