Taiwan's incoming top negotiator with China Thursday said he expects the island to resume talks and contacts with China after May 26, following eight years of cross-strait stalemate, according to dpa. "I expect the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to start negotiations after May 26," Chiang Pin-kung told a news conference late Thursday. Chiang, appointed by incoming President Ma Ying-jeou as head of the SEF that represents the government in talks with China in the absence of official ties, said SEF will hold a board meeting on May 20 to re-elect the chairman and other key posts. SEF will then inform its Chinese counterpart by May 26 the reorganization in order to resume their formal negotiation functions frozen after Beijing refused to deal with the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) since it governed Taiwan in 2000, he said. Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing has regarded Taiwan as a part of China that must be brought back to its fold, if necessary by force. It has agreed to resume talks with the incoming government of the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), which will be sworn in on May 20 after defeating the DPP in the presidential election in March. Chiang, a KMT vice chairman, said weekend cross-strait charter flights and travel to Taiwan by Chinese tourists will be the priority topic for resumption of talks between the two sides. He said though it would be a rush, he aims to complete the talks on the issues as soon as possible so that the two sides can launch the weekend charter flights and Chinese tourists can travel to Taiwan beginning July 4 - a date targeted by incoming President Ma Ying-jeou as the first step towards cross-strait rapprochement. The outgoing DPP government has barred official contacts with China and cross-strait flights must route through a third area, principally Hong Kong. It has also barred Chinese tourists from visiting the island directly, forcing them to first go to a third area in order to visit Taiwan. Ma has promised to allow 3,000 such tourists per day to visit from July 4 in addition to the launch of weekend charter flights.
