Taiwan, China envoys sign historic trade pact

Taiwan and China set aside decades of hostilities Tuesday and agreed to drastically expand flights and allow shipping links across the Taiwan Strait, a potential hotspot that has long threatened to become a war zone.

The historic deal highlighted the dramatic improvement in relations in the past half year between the rivals that split amid a bloody civil war in 1949, but Taiwan and China appeared to still be a long way from resolving the root causes of their conflict.

The envoys agreed Tuesday to hold high-level talks every six months and focus on building closer financial ties in the next round of meetings.

After signing the pact, Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin smiled and shook hands with his Taiwanese counterpart, Chiang Pin-kung. They sipped champagne and held up two lines of framed calligraphy that said: “Peaceful negotiation creates a win-win situation.”