By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-12 07:05

A 16-member Taiwan delegation, headed by Chiang Pin-kun, arrived in Beijing Wednesday to attend the first cross-Taiwan Straits talks in nine years.

The two-day talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), headed by Chiang, and the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), start today.

Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, waves to well wishers and journalists upon his arrival in Beijing June 11, 2008. [Agencies]

ARATS chairman Chen Yunlin will meet Chiang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse this morning to discuss the possibility of starting cross-Straits chartered flights on the weekends and mainland tourists traveling to the island.

Taiwan media have reported that the flights, 18 each from the mainland and the island, would operate from Friday to Monday.

They would operate from four airports on the island - Taipei, Taichung, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung - and four on the mainland - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen.

The travelers' scheme would allow 3,000 mainland visitors, with valid travel documents approved by authorities on both sides, to fly daily to the island in groups as small as 10.

Talks will also be held on the number of qualified travel agencies that can operate Taiwan tours, minimum expenses for each tourist, and the use of Unionpay debit cards by mainland tourists, the media reports said.

Some agreements are scheduled to be signed tomorrow.

Before leaving Taipei for Beijing, Chiang said he felt the weight of a great responsibility on his shoulders, and would try his best to meet people's expectations and turn a new leaf.

He regards the four-day trip as a new start and one of mutual trust and consultation, and hopes the talks will help lay the ground for a "win-win situation" for cross-Straits ties.

"This is the best time for the two sides to resume dialogue and improve relations," the Taiwan media quoted him as saying.

Chiang said he and Chen will also touch on other subjects such as chartered cargo flights, mini-link between Taiwan's Jinmen island and Xiamen, cross-Straits cooperation in fighting crime, and the possibility of the island's financial institutions operating on the mainland.

Will he invite his mainland counterpart to visit the island? "Certainly," he said. "I will extend my invitation to ARATS chairman (Chen Yunlin) to visit the island any time at his convenience."

During his visit to Beijing, Chiang will pay homage to Dr Sun Yat-sen at the Biyun Temple, which houses the personal effects of the forerunner of China's revolution. He will visit some Olympic venues, such as the National Aquatic Center, or "Water Cube", too.

Cross-Straits talks began in 1992 but broke off in 1999, when former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui redefined the two sides' ties as "special state-to-state relationship".

All efforts to resume the talks during the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party's eight-year rule failed.