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Taiwan says talks with China 'open new page'
2008-06-14
TAIPEI (AFP) - The head of Taiwan's top China policy-making body said Saturday the resumption of talks with Beijing "open a new page" in relations between the long-time rivals. Chiang Pin-kun, Taiwan's chief negotiator with China, returned to the island on Saturday after signing historic agreements in Beijing to set up direct flights and boost tourism. His mainland counterpart Chen Yunlin has also accepted his invitation to visit Taiwan later this year. "Chiang met the people's expectations to successfully accomplish the tasks and open a new page for positive cross-strait exchanges," said Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council while meeting Chiang at the airport. Chiang, chairman of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, told reporters he hoped the agreements would help boost cross-strait ties. The agreements are part of a rapprochement triggered by the election of the Kuomintang party's Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president in March. Ma rose to power on a platform of building closer trade and political ties with China, in contrast to his predecessor Chen Shui-bian, who deeply angered Beijing with his efforts to steer the island towards independence. Trade and travel links between China and Taiwan have been severely restricted since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949. China's communist rulers have insisted ever since that Taiwan must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. The talks in Beijing this week were the first direct dialogue between the two sides in a decade since China suspended the process amid acrimony over sovereignty.
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