Taiwan's President Ma trumpets ‘one China,’ peace
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九
and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平 held a historic meeting in Singapore yesterday, the first time the leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait have met since 1949 after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War.
The summit, which began with the two exchanging an extended handshake before going behind closed doors, was trumpeted by Ma and Xi as a milestone in cross-strait relations.
“Today is a special day where leaders from two sides of the Strait meet,” said Xi, who was on a state visit to Singapore to celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the Southeast Asian city-state.
“Both sides of the Strait are brothers, a family of blood that is thicker than water,” Xi said in his opening remarks of the meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Xi said: “We should let the world know with actions that Chinese on the two sides of the Strait are completely capable of solving our own problem with wisdom,” adding that both sides of the Strait have since 2008 moved toward a path of peaceful development and that people of the two sides have made great efforts to keep the cross-strait situation stable and harmonic over the past seven years.
President Ma Ying-jeou, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore yesterday.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/11/08/2003631952
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Nice to see that China and Taiwan are avoiding restarting the cold war.
Taiwan's example of successfully transitioning from an authoritarian state to a liberal democracy can serve well as an example for China's continuing evolution into a modern state.