BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Upon arrival of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung in Chongqing on Monday, a new chapter in the cross-Strait relationship is in sight as leaders of the SEF and its mainland counterpart will hold the fifth round of talks since the two sides resumed discussions in June 2008.
These fifth talks will be marked with historic and strategic significance in the process of the cross-Strait relationship development and become a milestone for both sides to realize a normal, regular and free economic relation.
In the past decades, a unilateral and unbalanced trade and economic link between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan has seriously suppressed the vitality of the cross-Strait economic cooperation and especially resulted in a negative impact on Taiwan's economic growth.
With the development of all-round relations between the two sides as both encounter new problems and situations in the world's economic globalization and regional economic integration, a normal, regular and free economic relationship has become an urgent need for both the mainland and Taiwan.
Therefore, General Secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Hu Jintao and then-Chairman of Kuomintang Party Lien Chan jointly issued the common prospects for peaceful cross-Strait development more than five years ago in which the two sides proposed to establish a mechanism for economic cooperation.
The mainland and Taiwan achieved consensus to implement negotiations for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement in May 2008 after cross-Strait relations began to change.
To realize this objective, the SEF and the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) have carried out detailed and difficult talks while efficiently preparing for negotiations during the past six months with 10 internal meetings and three expert talks.
In the preparatory negotiations, the mainland has fully considered the interests of Taiwan' s medium and small-sized enterprises, especially farmers, and provide as many benefits as possible to the Taiwan compatriots.
The two framework agreements to be signed on Tuesday, one for economic cooperation and the other for cross-Strait intellectual property rights cooperation, will be important fruits.
But more importantly, the two agreements will demonstrate that Chinese people living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could resolve their own problems with wisdom and negotiations.
People on both sides are expecting the SEF and the ARATS might deepen their dialogues to include culture, education, media and other new sectors, hoping they could make breakthroughs in political and military issues in the future.
