Relations between China and Taiwan take historic turn

WARMER RELATIONS between self-ruled Taiwan and mainland China took a historic turn yesterday when President Ma Ying-jeou became the first Taiwanese leader to meet a senior Chinese Communist official since the civil war in 1949.

Mr Ma greeted Beijing's top negotiator on Taiwanese affairs, Chen Yunlin, at a government guest house in central Taipei amid tight security as thousands of rowdy anti-China protesters, who want full independence for Taiwan, demonstrated outside the venue against what they see as cosying up to the old enemy.

Demonstrators had blocked Mr Chen's exit from a banquet earlier in the week.

Historic it may have been but the meeting could hardly be described as overly friendly.

China has repeatedly threatened to use force to bring the island back to the fold if it ever tries to declare independence.

"There still exist disputes and challenges, especially regarding Taiwan's security and international status," said Mr Ma, who wordlessly presented Mr Chen a vase.

The Chinese envoy gave Mr Ma a painting of a horse - "ma" means horse in Chinese - which he simply said was by a great artist.

In the run-up there had been much speculation as to whether Mr Chen would address Mr Ma as "President" but he avoided using any term which would give any kind of tacit approval to treating Taiwan as an independent country. Any references to contentious terms such as "independence" or "Taiwan's president" are always used in inverted commas in the mainland media.

Mr Chen arrived for a five-day visit on Monday, and signed four trade deals which underline growing economic closeness across the strait of Taiwan. They included agreements to introduce direct cargo shipping and postal services, increase passenger flights and shorten routes across the strait, and to co-operate on food safety.