A HIGH-LEVEL media delegation from the mainland arrived in Taiwan yesterday marking the first official contact between senior executives of news organisations across the Taiwan Strait in more than four decades.
Taiwan, which traditionally banned such contact, has recently relaxed its control over mainland exchanges, agreeing in principle to allow China's trade and economic officials to visit.
The delegation is made up of senior editors from news agencies such as the Xinhua (the New China News Agency), China News Service, newspapers like Economic Daily, China Daily, Guangming Daily and the state-run Central China Television.
Members will meet their Taiwan counterparts in their 10-day visit that will go to Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien.
The visit was part of a cultural exchange programme mandated under an agreement signed between Beijing and Taipei in Singapore last April.
Speaking in Beijing yesterday, delegation leader and the editor-in-chief of Xinhua, Nan Zhenzhong, hoped the visit could help promote ''understanding'' across the Taiwan Strait.