Taipei - Taiwan will hold talks with China on financial market investments, including permission for China investment in local stocks and Taiwanese investments in mainland securities and banking institutions, a top official said Sunday. "They will be included in our upcoming talks as the follow-up agenda," said Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the island's top China policy planning body.
She was referring to the high-level cross-strait talks set to be held in Taipei by China top negotiator Chen Yunlin and his Taiwanese counterpart Chiang Pin-kung between late October and early November.
Lai said such negotiations, whose schedule would be announced soon, are necessary as they involve financial regulations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the need to sign letters of memorandum before operators can make such investments.
Beijing suspended previous talks with Taipei in 1999 after then president Lee Teng-hui reclassified cross-strait relations as "special state-to-state" relations. China considered Lee's act a promotion of Taiwan independence, a status it has repeatedly said would respond to with military action.
Cross-strait relations have warmed since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party became president in May. He has adopted a policy to engage China and liberalize cross-strait economic exchanges.
