Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the Taiwan authority lifting its ban on islanders visiting the mainland on Nov. 2, 1987. Following are some major events chronicling exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan over the past two decades:
Oct. 14, 1987 - The Taiwan authority passed a resolution lifting the ban on visiting the mainland, allowing Taiwan residents to visit their mainland relatives.
Nov. 2 - The Taiwan Red Cross Society began to accept visit applications filed by Taiwan residents, and a great number of Taiwan people started their mainland journey the next day, ending nearly 40 years of isolation between the two sides.
July 3, 1988 - China's State Council, or cabinet, promulgated a regulation encouraging investment to the mainland from Taiwan entrepreneurs.
Sept. 9 - The State Council decided to set up the Taiwan Affairs Office under the cabinet.
Nov. 9 - Taiwan began to accept applications filed by mainlanders for attending funerals or visiting patients in Taiwan.
Nov. 25, Taiwan allowed the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT), or the Nationalist Party's military personnel and their families, who were formerly detained on the mainland after 1949, to settle down in Taiwan.
June, 1989 - Taiwan authorities lifted the ban on telecommunications and post services with the mainland.
Sept. 22, 1990 - A Taiwan athletic delegation of 417 people took part in the 11th Asian Games held in Beijing.
Nov. 21 - The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) was established in Taiwan headed by Koo Chen-fu.
Aug. 12, 1991 - Two mainland correspondents from the Xinhua News Agency and China News Service, the first mainland reporters to enter the island after 42 years of isolation, went to Taipei to report the detention of mainland fishermen on the island.
Aug. 20 - Qu Zhe and Zhuang Zhongxi, two officials of the Red Cross Society of China, the first dispatched personnel to the island, arrived in Taipei to visit detained fishermen.
Dec. 16 - The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) was set up in Beijing headed by Wang Daohan.
Jan. 7, 1992 - The State Council issued a regulation governing the departure for and return from Taiwan of mainlanders, which took effect on May 1 of that year.
June 6 - A group of six mainland leading scientists, the first scholar delegation since 1949, started an eight-day visit to Taiwan at the invitation of Wu Ta-you, a noted physicist from the island.
July 31 - The Taiwan authority issued regulation on the relations between people from Taiwan and the mainland, covering various kinds of non-governmental cross-Strait exchanges.
Sept. 3 - A group of 18 mainland journalists started a week-long news coverage tour in Taiwan, inaugurating cross-Strait journalistic exchanges.
March 18, 1993 - The Taiwan authority allowed any Taiwan residents, excluding a few special personnel, to go to the mainland for whatever purpose.
April 15 - The visa office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Macao started to handle the pass-and-visa issues for Taiwan residents going to or returning from the mainland.
April 27 to 29 - Wang Daohan, the mainland-based ARATS chairman, and Koo Chen-fu, the Taiwan-based SEF chairman, held a historic "Wang-Koo meeting" in Singapore, the first cross-Strait meeting between leaders of the two authorized non-governmental organizations in four decades. Discussion ranged from cross-Strait economic exchanges to mail, trade, air and shipping services and labor and technological cooperation.
March, 1994 - The National People's Congress, or the top legislature, adopted the law on protection of Taiwan investments on the mainland.
Oct. 1998 - Koo Chen-fu, chairman of the Taiwan-based SEF, met with Wang Daohan, president of the mainland-based ARATS, in Shanghai and made the "four consensuses", which further boosted cross-Strait relations.
Jan. 2001 - Taiwan passenger ships began to sail directly to coastal areas of the mainland Fujian Province.
Feb. 8 - Two Xinhua correspondents Fan Liqing and Chen Binhua, the first mainland reporters assigned to the island for routine news reporting for a set period, arrived in Taipei.
Jan. 2002 - The Taiwan authority opened the cross-Strait direct trade link, allowing Taiwan businessmen to invest directly on the mainland and sign contracts directly with mainland companies.
Feb. 24 - A grand Buddhist ceremony was held in Taiwan to welcome the enshrinement of Sakyamuni's Fingerbone.
July 5, 2002 - Cross-Strait banking services were formally inaugurated.
Jan. 26, 2003 - A Taiwanese China Airlines charter flight left Taipei for Shanghai, the first civil aviation flight from Taiwan to the mainland since 1949.
Dec. 17 - The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council issued a document, reiterating the mainland's basic stand and policies on the cross-Strait "three direct links" -- in mail, transport and trade.
Dec. 8, 2004 - Residents of the coastal province of Fujian were able to visit Jinmen area on sightseeing tours from the day.
April 26 to May 3, 2005 - Then Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan led a KMT delegation to the mainland, the first by a top KMT leader since 1949. The landmark visit ended with the mainland's goodwill gift of a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan compatriots, the removal of a ban on mainland residents traveling to the island and the wider opening of the mainland's market to fruits grown in Taiwan.
May 5 to 13 - James CY Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan, visited the mainland and was met by President Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee.
July 6-13 - Taiwan's New Party delegation visited the mainland to commemorate the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
April 14-15 - The first forum on economic, trade and cultural affairs between the mainland and Taiwan was held in Beijing.
Sept. 29, 2006 - The first cross-Strait charter flight for the Mid-Autumn Festival took off.
Oct. 17, - The Cross-Strait Agricultural Cooperation Forum was held in Boao, in island province of Hainan, to expand agricultural exchanges between the two sides.
April 28 to 29, 2007 - The third cross-Strait economic, trade and cultural forum was held in Beijing, with about 500 participants from the two sides attending the event. The mainland announced a 13-policy package to deepen exchanges.
June 15, 2007 - A first cross-Strait charter flight was launched for the traditional Dragon Boat Festival; Charter flightsare now in service on all four major Chinese traditional festivals,namely, the Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Qingming Festival.
Source:Xinhua
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