BEIJING (AFP) — The head of Taiwan's ruling party arrived in China on Monday for the highest-level contact with the communist mainland's leadership in 60 years.
Kuomintang chairman Wu Poh-hsiung landed in the eastern city of Nanjing, with his arrival broadcast on national television in a rare break from China's blanket media coverage of the aftermath of its deadly earthquake.
His arrival at the head of a 16-member KMT delegation invited by China is a clear sign of easing tensions since his China-friendly party defeated Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in a March presidential poll.
The KMT's Ma Ying-jeou was sworn in as president on May 20.
"We hope that through our continuous mutual efforts we can put aside our differences, work on our common interests and create a win-win situation," Wu said in remarks delivered at a welcoming ceremony on the airport tarmac.
"Inviting us to visit in the midst of such a large earthquake disaster shows that cross-strait ties are extremely important."
Wu will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Wednesday, underscoring the rapid improvement in ties.
Direct links between the two sides have been cut since the nationalist KMT government of China fled to Taiwan following defeat by Mao Zedong's Communists in a civil war.
For decades, the KMT and China's Communist Party were the most bitter of Cold War foes, but the KMT has in recent years staked out a platform of reconciliation.
The visit comes as the two sides prepared to resume a series of talks on bilateral issues which have been stalled for more than a decade.
The talks were last held in 1995, but China suspended follow-up meetings in protest over a visit to the United States that year by Taiwan's then-president Lee Teng-hui of the KMT.
Taiwan said last week the talks would resume next month with the aim of building closer trade and tourism links with Beijing.
Key issues would be starting weekend passenger charter and cargo flights as well as allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan, said Lai Shin-yuan, the island's new top China policy-maker.
Wu and his delegation had to transit through Hong Kong and then take a charter flight to Nanjing as direct air links still do not exist across the 180-kilometre wide (110-mile) Taiwan Strait.
Wu is slated to visit Shanghai on Thursday and a Buddhist temple the next day in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu to "pray for cross-strait peace and the victims killed by the Sichuan earthquake," the KMT said earlier.
Taiwan has sent a rescue team to southwest Sichuan province to help in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there, which has killed more than 65,000 people and left more than 23,000 missing.
Despite their past animosity, Taiwan's government has pledged 800 million Taiwan dollars (26 million US dollars) for earthquake relief and raised another 1.2 billion from the public.
Wu said in Nanjing that the help Taiwan has provided China illustrated the deep connection that people of both sides feel as fellow Chinese.
The island's charities, businesses and individuals have already donated at least 2.4 billion Taiwan dollars, according to reports in Taipei.
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