By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official will visitBeijing's often bitter political rival Taiwan later this year,state media said on Thursday, as the two sides sat down totheir first formal talks in almost a decade.
Direct flights, banned since defeated Nationalist forcesfled to the island at the close of the civil war in 1949, andopening Taiwan's doors to Chinese tourists are the main topicson the agenda. An accord on these is expected on Friday.
Trickier issues such as a peace treaty and the hundreds ofmissiles Taiwan says China has aimed at the island are notexpected to be discussed at talks made possible byChina-friendly Ma Ying-jeou being elected Taiwan president inMarch.
Though China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and Beijing hasvowed to bring the island under its rule, by force ifnecessary, ties are now improving.
Chen Yunlin, who heads a semi-official body set up to dealwith Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties, accepted aninvitation from his Taiwan counterpart, P.K. Chiang, at a dateto be decided later.
Wang Yi, newly appointed head of China's Taiwan AffairsOffice, told Chiang that it was important both sides weretalking again.
"The resumption of talks shows that cross-strait relationsare moving in a direction of peaceful development and this isan important step. This is heartening," said Wang, a Chinesediplomat who oversaw detente with wartime enemy Japan.
Chiang said the two sides should look beyond the firstround of talks and at other issues that need tackling.
"We also hope that we can not only normalise cross-straittrade relations through more talks, but that also we canpromote conscientious exchanges between the two sides to makecontributions to cross-strait peace and prosperity," he toldWang.
Xinhua news agency added that China's Association forRelations Across the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan's StraitsExchange Foundation, under whose auspices the Beijing talks arehappening, would also set up representative offices on eitherside.
FURTHER TALKS
This round should pave the way for regular talks at whichharder issues can be discussed, said Alexander Huang, aprofessor of strategic studies at Taipei's Tamkang University.
"We are trying to put all the difficult issues on the shelfthis time," Huang said.
Chen would be the most senior Chinese official to set footon the island since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won theChinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled tothe island.
China and Taiwan last spoke formally in 1999, before formerTaiwan President Lee Teng-hui enraged Beijing by describingties as "a special state-to-state relationship".
China is keen to avoid diplomatic rows in the run-up to theBeijing Olympics in August and had been expected to take aconciliatory line this week.
In a further sign of a thaw, Taiwan's central bank said onWednesday it would allow financial institutions to sell Chineseyuan to individuals as well as buying the currency from them.
But Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Partyaccused the government of courting Beijing because of theruling party's business connections in China.
"We can't belittle Taiwan's sovereignty, and we can't losethe country's dignity," a party official said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Ralph Jennings in Taipei)