BBC:China and Taiwan to restart talks

Breaking and front page news on the BBC site. No surprises here, and everything looks like it may be close to the original schedule of July direct flights.

China and Taiwan to restart talks

Taiwan has accepted an invitation from China to restart bilateral talks that have been suspended for a decade, in a further signal of warming relations.

China invited Taiwanese officials to attend talks in Beijing from 11 June, with the focus on tourism and charter flights.

Accepting the invitation, Taiwan said it would organise a delegation.

On Wednesday, the head of Taiwan's ruling party held landmark talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung's meeting with Mr Hu was the highest-level encounter since the two sides split in 1949.

The details on the invitation:

Beijing invited officials from Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation to have talks with its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwanese foundation's chairman, Chiang Pin-kung, said he hoped that the two sides could reach agreements in Beijing.

Bilateral talks had been suspended for a decade but the election of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president in March has brought about a rapid thaw in relations.

Chinese state media Xinhua said the talks from 11-14 June would cover the issue of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan and the establishment of direct regular charter flights.

The "context" part of the article further down is obviously skewed, but we'll just leave it at that.