BEIJING — Taiwan and China formally agreed to expand charter flights and tourism today, a day after announcing plans to set up permanent offices in each other’s territory for the first time in decades of hostility.
No time frame was given for establishing the offices, which could perform consular functions such as issuing travel documents.
Yet coming on Thursday, the first day of formal talks between the sides in a decade, the agreement lends strong momentum toward efforts to build confidence and spur cooperation. The two sides divided amid civil war in 1949, and their relationship has veered between strained to outright hostile.
“It’s a very positive and healthy development in relations across the Taiwan Strait,” said political scientist George Tsai of Taiwan’s Chinese Culture University.
Tsai cautioned, however, that the offices would be limited to dealing with administrative matters and would offer little direct help in dealing with core political differences, such as China’s threatening missile arsenal and Taiwan’s desire for diplomatic recognition overseas.
Taiwan’s 19-member negotiating team is being led by Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-governmental Straits Exchange Foundation, and includes two vice Cabinet ministers — the highest-ranking Taiwanese officials ever to participate in bilateral talks.
The unexpected announcement injected a touch of drama into an otherwise modest agenda that sought mainly to finalize agreements on charter flights and tourism.
Chiang said earlier that he expected to sign the accord opening the way for 36 charter flights to cross the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait every weekend. Flights are now limited to four annual Chinese holidays and are usually packed with Taiwanese residents on the mainland returning home to visit family.
The talks are scheduled to run through today at a state guesthouse in western Beijing.
