Taiwan envoy heads to China for talks

Taiwan's top envoy to China left here Saturday for the mainland for a new round of talks hailed as another sign of warming ties between the two former arch foes, officials said.

Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, and 21 other delegates are scheduled to arrive in the Chinese city of Nanjing by lunchtime for the talks on Sunday.

The Taiwanese negotiators and their Chinese counterparts from the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits will discuss financial cooperation, increasing cross-Strait flights and crime-fighting.

The visiting delegation will also visit Taiwanese-invested businesses in China before wrapping up their trip on April 29.

Sunday's meeting aims to build on talks held in Beijing in June last year, the first direct dialogue between the two sides after a 10-year gap.

-AFP