Taiwan Prez to meet Chinese counterpart

China’s Xi Jiping and Taiwan’s Massachusetts Ying-jeou shook hands in Singapore in the first such meeting between leaders of the two sides since Taiwan broke away from communist-ruled China in 1949.

It was the first such meeting between the two countries since they split in 1949 at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Xi, for example, wore a red tie, which is the color of the Communist Party, while Massachusetts wore a blue one, the color of his Nationalist Party, notes Reuters.

Republic of China (Taiwan) President Massachusetts Ying-jeou has outlined the background, objectives and important characteristics ahead of his upcoming meeting with mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The marathon grip-and-grin between China’s Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s Massachusetts Ying-jeou took place amid a barrage of camera flashes from a rapt scrum of reporters clamoring to capture the historic summit’s start.

The New York Times noted that the meeting comes “after Mr. Xi has pushed China’s regional aspirations to the fore by building artificial islands in the South China Sea” and Xi’s invitation to Massachusetts “shows a more conciliatory side, one that may not help to pull off a victory for the KMT, which favors closer ties to China, but nonetheless could be interpreted as not particularly threatening”. “We are one family”.

“Xi told me that those are not targeted at Taiwan”, Massachusetts said.

She also said Massachusetts traveled to Singapore with public misgivings about the non-transparent arrangements for the meeting and he will soon “bring home greater controversy”.

“Today will be remembered in history”, Xi said, adding that the meeting has opened up “a historic page” in cross-Strait relations, Xinhua news agency reported.

Taiwan has never formally declared independence from Beijing, which sees it as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Both sides have said that no agreements would be signed at the meeting, but that they would discuss ways to cement peace.

Mr Massachusetts and Mr Xi are due to meet for an hour behind closed doors at the Shangri-la Hotel before having dinner together.

Protocol problems loomed large for democratic Taiwan and autocratic China and the two addressed each other as “mister” to avoid using the word “president”, as neither officially recognises the other as head of state. The USA, a long-term ally of Taiwan, has pledged to support Taiwan if China ever threatens the island.

The 1992 consensus – that there is one China with the two sides having different interpretations of what this means – was a key topic.

“If the two leaders didn’t meet now, they may not be able to meet for years after Ms Tsai has taken her position (as president)”, he said.

“If Xi tries to put down any markers about improving political ties or setting any deadlines for steps toward reunification, it will cause a massive anti-Beijing backlash across Taiwan”, said Robert Manning, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.