China and Taiwan (signed) a new set of agreements yesterday, taking a big step towards opening up their financial services industries to each other and allowing direct (investment) in Taiwan from mainland China.

Negotiators from both sides of the Taiwan Strait met in the Chinese city of Nanjing over the weekend for formal talks aimed at normalising relations (between) the two former civil war rivals who, prior to last year, had not held talks for more than a (decade).

Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan's president, has markedly improved relations with China (since) taking office last summer.

Chen Yunlin, China's top negotiator, said yesterday that China “will buy more products from Taiwan and send more tourists to the (island), while encouraging more Taiwan enterprises to set up on the mainland".

Chiang Pin-kung, Mr Chen's counterpart, said China did not rule (out) the possibility of signing a comprehensive trade pact with Taiwan, one of Mr Ma's key policy initiatives.

However, he added: “Cross-Strait co-operation will become (even) broader and the issues we will need to resolve will become more and more complicated."

The talks concluded yesterday with the signing of three agreements, one of which calls for greater financial co-operation (across) the Taiwan Strait.

This paves the way for the signing of a more detailed (memorandum) of understanding later this year that would allow Taiwan banks to set up branches in China, and vice versa.

One senior executive at a Taiwan (bank) said the signing of the agreement was “going to be the beginning of a long march. A number of banks are going to be looking to the China market for growth but it is not something that will lead to profits (in) the next two to three years".

A second agreement signed this weekend expands direct flights across the Taiwan Strait, which only began last year, from 108 chartered flights to 270 scheduled flights (a) week.

Question)
1. How do you view this news ?
2. For Chinese, how important is the relationship between Taiwan and Mainland China  ?