MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan delivered the written three-point authorization in person that afternoon, a few minutes after Chiang Pin-kung, a vice chairman of the ruling Kuomintang, was installed as the new SEF chairman.

"On behalf of the government, we at the (MAC) hereby authorize the (SEF) to commence talks on administrative affairs (with mainland China)...," said Lai.

The MAC is a Cabinet-level body responsible for coordinating and executing Taiwan's policy on cross-strait affairs, while the SEF is a semi-private organization commissioned by the government to handle relations between Taiwan and China. Its Chinese counterpart is the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).

"Hopefully the plans to start direct charter flights and bring more mainland tourists to Taiwan will be realized in July," she added.

Noting that Taiwan is entering a new era in cross-strait relations, Lai expressed confidence that sound interactions between Taiwan and the mainland would result from closer collaboration between the MAC and the SEF.

"We will seek the greatest interest of all people (of Taiwan)," she stressed, while congratulating Chiang on his "outstanding leadership."

Beijing abruptly shut down communication channels between the SEF and the ARATS in 1999, in protest of then president Lee Teng-hui's definition of cross-strait relations as "state-to-state."

The general mood of cross-strait relations under the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party was cast in the same mold, until the election of President Ma Ying-jeou on March 22, 2008.

"I hope that the SEF will devote itself to cross-strait development with its professionalism, enthusiasm, and wisdom," she noted, without providing detail on the specifics and time schedule of the planned negotiations.

Further, the SEF immediately sent an official letter to the ARATS stating the installation of P. K. Chiang and an appeal for discussion on opening direct charter flights and the arrival of Chinese tourists in Taiwan. No mention was made of negotiations regarding the opening of cargo flights.

"To resume talks (with mainland China) is an important development for the country that also symbolizes a new era in cross-strait relations," Chiang went on, "The workload of the SEF will become heavier, but the work of the SEF will become more meaningful."

The letter also stated that the SEF is willing to resume administrative talks based on the so-called "1992 Consensus" -- an agreement early last decade between negotiators from Taipei and Beijing that there is "one China," but that the two sides have "differing interpretations" over how to define it.

Chiang was also evasive on the subject of his upcoming visit to mainland China, although SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-liang speculated that morning that cross-strait authorities could ink the accord on the launch of weekend charter flights by mid-June, at the earliest.

During a lunch organized by the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei ahead of his installation, Chiang said he was confident that cross-strait negotiations would start in early June -- possibly after Chen Yunlin, the current director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, becomes the new ARATS chairman.

After all these medium-range objectives are attained, the SEF would work at enhancing cross-strait economic cooperation and tackle the question of comprehensive economic cooperation agreements or arrangements (CECAs) between Taiwan and China, Chiang explained.

The innovative agreements would pave the way for a cross-strait Common Market envisaged by Vice President Vincent Siew, he added, while getting Taiwan out of the sovereignty dilemma generated by any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed with China or any other ASEAN countries.

The CECAs are designed to reduce or remove tariff barriers in the context of the emergence of an Asian free trade zone, he added.

Chiang first held talks with Chen in Beijing in March 2005, ahead of then KMT Chairman Lien Chan's historic visit in China the following month. He was also the top negotiator in the annual economic forums between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party held ever since.

Many an agreement was reached during the forums, but former President Chen Shui-bian refused to endorse them and led to an isolation and marginalization of Taiwan's economy, he argued.