CHINA:Negotiators from China and Taiwan meet this week for the first time in nine years, but backsliding on the only item allowed on their agenda - a direct flights deal - may cool any mood of detente.
Taiwan's top China negotiator, PK Chiang, will lead a team to Beijing from June 11th-14th to negotiate with his counterpart, Chen Yunlin, after recent warm but informal meetings between Chinese president Hu Jintao and Taiwan's leaders.
China and Taiwan last spoke formally in 1999, before then Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui enraged Beijing by describing ties as "a special state-to-state relationship".
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
But China, which is keen to avoid diplomatic rows in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August, is expected to take a conciliatory line this week.
"It's taken them so many years to meet, so I think talks between the two sides won't fail," said Chao Chien-min, a political science professor at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. "China doesn't want to see them fail."
Taiwan's independence-leaning main opposition party has appointed a team to monitor the talks, local media said.
Showing the importance of the talks, Taiwan's top China negotiator will lead a group of 19, including a vice-chairman of the government's mainland affairs council, transportation and tourism officials, to Beijing.
There are currently no direct flights between the two rivals, except on major holidays.
- (Reuters)