Taiwan, China to review cross-strait exchanges

Jun 8, 2011, 0:47 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan and Chinese officials are to meet Wednesday in Taipei to review cross-Taiwan Strait exchanges. The officials are to review six cooperation agreements signed by their governments since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, said the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official agency in Taiwan that handles relations with China in the absence of formal ties.

The pacts concern tourism, aviation, judicial cooperation, the quarantine of farm produce and food safety, press reports quoted Kao Kung-lien, deputy secretary general of the foundation, as saying.

After the talks, the two sides were expected to announce Taiwan would open its doors to individual Chinese tourists this month, they would increase the number of cross-strait flights from the current 370 to more than 500 and Beijing would deport 14 Taiwan fugitives to Taipei.

The fugitives ran a telephone scam targeting victims in China from the Philippines.

Philippine police arrested them in late 2010 and deported them to China in March, triggering a diplomatic row between Taipei and Manila as Taiwan insisted they should be repatriated to the island, not China.

Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but since Ma took office in 2008, ties have warmed. Taipei and Beijing have held six rounds of high-level talks and signed 14 trade and business agreements.

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