The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) says Taiwan and China have agreed on the format of a framework governing the establishment of representative offices on each other’s side.
The MAC is Taiwan’s top China policy-making body. The representative offices will be set up by Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). Those are semi-official bodies in charge of exchanges in the absence of official relations.
The MAC said Monday that the semi-official organizations agreed in January that in addition to the main contents, the framework will include two appendices. One appendix will cover codes of discipline, while the other will cover guarantees and measures of expediency.
Officials say the two sides have reached some consensus on the wording, but that more talks are needed about the framework itself. The two sides have agreed that the representative offices will be responsible for promoting civilian exchanges and cooperation. They will oversee protection of people’s rights, emergency assistance, the application for travel permits, and humanitarian visits.