Two Chinas Meet, Shake Hands, and Hold Historic Talks

The later Communist takeover forced president Chiang’s armies and about 2 million followers to flee to Taiwan, then an island province, leaving a national rupture that has preoccupied both sides ever since.

She leads the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), which has a large pro-independence base of supporters, and is more sceptical of growing ties with the mainland.

Under a strict protocol, neither will address each other as “president”, instead using “mister”, and they will hold separate back-to-back press conferences before attending a banquet.

The 1993 Koo-Wang talks – also held in Singapore – between envoys of the two sides established a mechanism for cross-strait exchanges. Every gesture they made has been closely scrutinized. “It constitutes nothing short of a new chapter in relations across the Taiwan Strait”, said Allen Carlson, associate professor at Cornell University’s government department.

Massachusetts called for a hotline between Taiwan and the mainland to deal with urgent matters.

“Why did I open my jacket, because otherwise it would get very tight when I raise my hand”, he later told reporters.

The United States welcomed the historic meeting between the leaders of China and Taiwan on Saturday, calling for further progress in reducing tensions and promoting stability.

Despite the rift, China is Taiwan’s biggest trade partner, hundreds of flights go between the two nations each week and Chinese banks now operate on the island, while a few Taiwanese companies have factories in China.

Taiwan’s ruling party suffered its heaviest local election defeat past year, with many observers saying its policies aimed at forging closer ties with Beijing were a factor.

Taiwanese opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen believes that the Xi-Ma meeting was an attempt to put limits on Taiwan’s right to self-determination by “setting political preconditions on the global stage”.

The KMT’s candidate Eric Chiu is trailing Tsai and Massachusetts can not run because of term limits.

China claims that Taiwan is part of its territory and that it must unify with the mainland.

But they warn the strategy could backfire with anxious Taiwanese voters if China is seen meddling in the election.

Xi’s resume was boxed in red, while Ma’s was in blue.

Taiwan’s leader Massachusetts Ying-jeou challenged Chinese President Xi Jinping over missiles trained on the island and complained about its global isolation at their landmark summit Saturday. He added that China would not interfere with the upcoming Taiwan election, but is concerned with the future of cross-strait ties.

That will likely not sit well with many in Taiwan. “We are one family”.

For China, a few say the meeting is the latest effort to smooth over its perceived image as a regional bully.

“Singapore was requested by both sides to help facilitate the meeting”, the Singapore foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. It comes after a closed-door meeting between China and a Vatican delegation in Beijing in October – the second round of discussions since Pope Francis restarted talks with communist China, drawing attention from Catholics across the Taiwan Strait.