THE LEADERS OF CHINA AND TAIWAN HAVE MET FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1949

USPA NEWS - President Xi Jinping of China met with President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Saturday in the first-ever encounter between leaders of the neighbors and longtime rivals. The talks between China President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, the first such meeting since China's civil war ended..

President Xi Jinping of China met with President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Saturday in the first-ever encounter between leaders of the neighbors and longtime rivals. The talks between China President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, the first such meeting since China's civil war ended in 1949, were being held at a luxury hotel in the neutral venue of Singapore.

Chinese state media painted the dialogue as a watershed moment which one analyst compared to Richard Nixon´s 1972 trip to China, which paved the way for the normalisation of relations between Beijing and Washington. 'This is also an icebreaking meeting,' Tao Wenzhou, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told CCTV, the state broadcaster.

The talks come ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan, in which the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is favoured to win, something Beijing wants to avoid. The ruling Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), retreated to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the communists, who are still in charge in Beijing. (AlJazeera)

Mr. Xi and Mr. Ma began their brief talks with a handshake that went on for more than a minute, with both men smiling broadly and turning side to side so the hundreds of reporters in the meeting room at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore could document the moment. The meeting is a high point in the two leaders´ efforts to bridge the divisions of civil war and decades of animosity...When the two men sat down to start their talks, Mr. Xi spoke first and said their encounter was a historic step that opened a new chapter in relations between the two sides. He said that the people of China and Taiwan were compatriots, 'one family with blood that is thicker than water.' (NYTimes)

Nathan Batto, a political scientist from Taipei´s Academia Sinica, said polls showed that while nearly all Taiwanese supported improved dialogue with China, fewer and fewer now backed the idea of reunification, which is Beijing´s ultimate goal. 'The separations between Taiwan and China are much, much deeper than between the Koreas or the Germanys,' Batto said. 'The public support here is for good relations with China ““ nobody wants to have a war ““ but not for any type of political integration. Taiwanese are very proud of their democracy and want to keep it,' he said. (The Guardian)

'At this historic juncture of a meeting between leaders from both sides of Taiwan Strait, we genuinely hope that both sides can show sincerity, demonstrate goodwill, meet each other half way and confront their difficulties,' China's official People's Daily wrote on Saturday.

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