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Timeline of cross-Straits relationship

By An Baijie ( China Daily )

Updated: 2014-06-26

In April 2005, Lien Chan, the then-chairman of the Kuomintang, led a delegation to visit the mainland. This was the first time that the top leaders of the Communist Party of China and the KMT had a dialogue in the past six decades.

In May 2005, James Soong, chairman of the People First Party in Taiwan, visited the mainland.

In June 2008, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation restarted talks in Beijing after a nine-year suspension.

On July 4, 2008, cross-Straits weekend charter flights began. Eleven airlines - six from the mainland and five from Taiwan - operated 144 cross-Straits return flights.

In December 2008, two pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were donated to Taiwan by mainland authorities.

On Dec 15, 2008, direct shipping, air transport and postal services between the mainland and Taiwan were formally launched.

In August 2009, 100 swimmers, 50 each from the mainland and Taiwan, swam across the Straits from Xiamen, Fujian province, to Kinmen.

In June 2010, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, a comprehensive cross-Straits economic pact, was signed to reduce tariffs and commercial barriers between the two sides.

On June 28, 2011, the first group of individual tourists from the mainland visited the island. Previously, tourists were only allowed to travel in groups.

On Feb 25, 2013, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, met Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the KMT, in Beijing. It was the first time that Xi met a Taiwan delegation after he became the CPC chief in November 2012.

On March 18, hundreds of students stormed Taiwan's legislative chamber to protest a cross-Straits service trade pact. The protest lasted for weeks until the pact was sent to the island's legislative chamber for detailed review.

Timeline of cross-Straits relationship

1. Passengers get off a plane of TransAsia Airways, a Taiwan airline, after a flight from Taipei to Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, last summer.2. Tourists from Fujian, Xiamen province, take photos in front of the Taipei 101 Mall on June 28, 2011.3.Tuan Tuan, a panda donated to Taiwan by mainland authorities in December 2008, has breakfast in the Taipei Zoo early this year.4. Saleswomen stock shelves at a Taiwan fruit distribution center in Xiamen, Fujian province.

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