Beijing's top Taiwan man Zhang Zhijun visits island for first time

China's head of Taiwanese affairs is set to arrive in Taiwan today, the first time the mainland's most senior official in charge of cross-strait relations will set foot on the island, which has had a fraught relationship with Beijing.

The arrival of Zhang Zhijun , director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, was considered an important step to address the nation's policy concerning Taiwan, local observers said.

Relations between the two former rivals, once bitter after the end of the civil war in 1949, have sharply improved since 2008. But Zhang's arrival comes just months after student protests in March over a trade pact threatened to derail efforts by the two governments to come to some agreement.

Zhang is coming, in a sense, to do some research.

"Beijing wants to know what exactly has gone wrong and why there is such strong opposition to the trade services pact supposed to benefit Taiwanese people," said George Tsai, a political science professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

Zhang's four-day trip will skip the island's capital of Taipei, taking him instead to nearby New Taipei City, the southern city of Kaohsiung and the central cities of Taichung and Changhua.