The much awaited dialogue between China and Taiwan has finally taken place in the southern Chinese resort town of Boao on last Saturday, and arrived at a decision on economic co-operation between both countries in the near future. In the first ever such meeting since a decade, Hu Jintao, China’s president and Vincent Siew, Taiwan’s vice-president-elect also decided to continue talks on a regular basis, to solve all outstanding issues between both the countries. The two leaders set a surprisingly concrete agenda for talks in this landmark bilateral meeting. As expected, Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president kept his election promise, by initiating a vital move to derive the best out of the talks, especially in a critically political climate where China is lambasted for its human rights record in its troubled Tibetan region by the world over.
The tussle between China’s unification call and the separate independent statehood claims by Taiwan for several decades have vexed bilateral relations and the country is in an ambiguous status since then. But a landmark meeting between Taiwan’s vice president-elect and China’s president Hu Jintao has raised hopes for the first cross-strait talks in a decade. The resumption in talks between both the countries is also expected give much needed boost to Taiwan’s economy as well as peace in the region. Beijing is likely to start the procedure of allowing cross-Strait charter flights and would enable mainland residents to visit Taiwan as tourists in the coming months.
Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, who attended the forum, stated that, the new development was a very good signal for peace and economic co-operation, not only for both countries but also for the whole region. Analysts expect unofficial negotiations on charter flights and tourism links to begin next month soon after Mr Ma and Mr Siew’s take office on May 20. Ma’s willingness in accepting titles like Chinese Taipei and flexible approach in other issues has endeared him among the Chinese. However, Siew was reluctant to divulge more details about the 20 minute meeting which was held behind closed doors. But said that his goal was only to improve “economic ties” between the two countries and has attended the meet just as the president of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation.