Taiwan-China meeting seen as major ice-breaker

A landmark meeting on Saturday between China's president and Taiwan's vice president-elect broke 60 years of ice and paved the way for trade and transit links such as regular direct flights, local media and analysts said.

"This meeting means that the two sides are going to enter an era of negotiations," said Chao Chien-min, a political analyst at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

"Yesterday's encounter should pose no problem, because it did not touch on any political topics," he said. "This had to do with Taiwan people's actual interests, so how could anyone oppose it?"

China, which has about 170 allies including the world's most powerful nations, has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and pledged to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.

Political differences have effectively barred high-level contact between the two sides for the past six decades, but Taiwan's economy depends increasingly on China.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan Vice President-elect Vincent Siew shook hands and talked one-on-one, mostly in private, for 20 minutes with 12 delegates apiece at the April 11-13 Boao Forum for Asia in southern China.

Hu and Siew, who attended in a private capacity, avoided politics in the live broadcast portions of their meeting.

Local media bannered the story across their front and inside pages, pronouncing it the highest-level Taiwan-China meeting since 1949 and a turning point in chilled relations.

"Both sides of the Taiwan Strait took a big step forward," the United Daily News said in an editorial on Sunday. "The Siew-Hu meeting had more than just symbolic value."

Taiwan media detailed Siew's four-point agenda of more direct flights, more Chinese tourists, normalised trade ties and the resumption of negotiation mechanisms.

Hu was quoted saying China would continue promoting economic cooperation, more direct flights and increased tourism.

Direct flights are banned, except during holiday seasons, for security reasons, usually forcing layovers in Hong Kong or Macau. Chinese tourists seldom enter Taiwan due to the island's fear of security breaches and overstays.

Taiwan's Liberty Times reported that only the current government is empowered to negotiate with China. Hu also jabbed at President Chen Shui-bian, the island-wide daily paper said.

Chen, who was first elected in 2000 and steps down next month due to term limits, seeks greater independence from China. Siew and President-elect Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party (KMT) won the March 22 polls and will take office on May 20.

"Hu took a veiled slap at the Chen government's eight years, that is 'for reasons clear to everyone' cross-Strait relations have taken twists and turns at every level," the paper said.

Questions also remain about what else Hu and Siew may have discussed.

"They only talked for 20 minutes, and the conversation hasn't been released," said Bruce Jacobs, Asian Studies professor at Australia's Monash University.