A silver lining in cross-Straits ties

Hung Hsiu-chu, chairwoman of the opposition Kuomintang Party in Taiwan, is scheduled to embark on a five-day trip to the Chinese mainland on Sunday. Her first visit to the mainland since becoming the Kuomintang leader in March will first take her to Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, where the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum is located, and then to Beijing.

Both sides of the Taiwan Straits are working on the details of Hung's itinerary. She has already confirmed her participation in the Beijing-based Cross-Straits Peace and Development Forum, which will be jointly hosted by nongovernmental organizations from the mainland and Taiwan on Nov 2 and 3.

As cross-Straits exchanges, official and grassroots both, have continued to wane since Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, also the chairwoman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, assumed power in May, Hung's visit to the mainland could serve as a silver lining in cross-Straits relations.