The handshake and meeting on Saturday in Singapore between President Xi Jinping of China and Ma Ying-Jeou, the president of Taiwan, was an important symbolic first encounter between the leaders of the neighbouring states which have been bitter rivals since China's civil war ended in 1949.
The People’s Republic of China still insists that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is politically part the country, and the two leaders in their exchanges did not make any acknowledgment of, or concession to, their respective sovereignty claims. Xi said that the people of China and Taiwan were compatriots, “one family with blood thicker than water”. And the two presidents were referred to simply as the “leader of the mainland side” and the “leader of the Taiwan side”.
The landmark meeting, however, comes as a welcome contrast to what neighbours have seen as Beijing’s aggressive posturing over other regional territorial claims and over the controversial construction of islands in the South China Sea. Xi appears to be projecting himself as a peacemaker, and Beijing has in recent years signed some 20 trade deals with Taipei in what has been seen as a partial thawing of the island’s diplomatic isolation under Ma – the meeting was the product of two years of negotiation.
The latter and his KMT party face elections – both presidential and parliamentary – next year and may find his rapprochement policies out of step with Taiwan’s wary electorate. There have been angry student protests over the last year at one of the trade deals, and the historic handshake may play less as a symbol of Ma’s influence and more as evidence of betrayal.
Just to emphasise Beijing’s unwavering line on its territorial claims , however, Xi made a speech on Saturday morning ahead of the meeting, insisting that the islands in the South China Sea “have been China’s territory since ancient times”, and that countries from outside the region – a clear reference to an increasingly antsy US – should respect the need of Asian nations for a “peaceful and stable environment”.