Taiwan, China to swap tourism offices

(Holger Mette)

Taiwan and China are set to swap tourism offices by the end of the year in yet another sign of warming ties between the former rivals, local media reported Thursday.

Representatives from the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and China's Cross-Straits Tourism Exchange Association will meet in Hong Kong soon to finalise the matter, the United Daily News said.

This follows previous negotiations between the two semi-official bodies in July in the southern Chinese territory, the paper said without citing sources.

Fan Guishan, vice secretary-general of Cross-Straits Tourism Exchange Association, will be China's first representative to be stationed in Taipei while Taiwan's envoy to Beijing has not yet been named, it said.

Officials at the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's top body in charge of China policy, were not immediately available for comment.

More than 360,000 Chinese nationals have visited Taiwan since July 2008, when President Ma Ying-jeou's Beijing-friendly government trebled the daily quota on Chinese visitors to 3,000.

Ties between Taiwan and China, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have improved dramatically since Ma took office last year.

But officially Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.