By Ho Ai Li

TAIPEI: China's top cross-strait envoy Chen Yunlin, his trademark bouffant hair ruffled by the wind, walked down the stairs from his plane yesterday and stepped onto the tarmac of Taoyuan Airport.

At that moment, 11.58am, he became the most senior Chinese official to set foot on Taiwan since the two sides separated amid a civil war in 1949.

Flying out of Beijing under sunny skies, Mr Chen's delegation flew into a grey and rainy Taipei for the second round of cross-strait talks, with a political storm over the horizon.

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