China and Taiwan are about to begin the highest-level talks since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Taiwanese officials said they would raise press freedom after Beijing denied access to some media outlets to the four-day meeting in Nanjing, reports BBC.
Beijing is likely to push Taiwan to pass a free trade deal that is currently stalled in parliament.
China insists that Taiwan is a part of its territory and has a stated aim of reclaiming the island.
Taiwan still calls itself the Republic of China and nominally claims the same territory as the Communist government in Beijing, although it does not press these claims.
The US is committed to defending Taipei, despite not formally recognising Taiwan as an independent country.
The situation has created a decades-long military stand-off between Beijing and Washington.
But cross-strait ties have improved since Taiwan’s pro-Beijing President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008.
Cross-strait flights began in 2008, and tourists from the mainland have boosted Taiwan’s economy.
Trade agreements have allowed Taiwanese technology firms to expand massively, investing billions of dollars in the mainland.
However, Mr Ma is deeply unpopular and analysts say his governing Kuomintang party is likely to lose local elections later this year.
He has sent Taiwan’s top cross-strait policy-maker Wang Yu-chi to meet mainland counterpart Zhang Zhijun in Nanjing.
They are the first formal government-to-government talks since the 1949 split.
Taiwan negotiators are likely to propose the posting of permanent representatives on each other’s territories.
But they will also face pressure to talk about press freedom after China refused accreditation to several media outlets.
“Press freedom is a universal value,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
“We’ve repeatedly said that the most important thing regarding news exchange between the two sides is the free and equal flow of information.”
Many Taiwanese are sensitive to issues of press freedom, having lived under a dictatorship that tightly controlled the media until the 1980s.
Correspondents say Beijing’s negotiators are likely to press for closer economic co-operation.
Source: UNB Connect
