China, Taiwan hold historic talks in Nanjing

Wang Yu-chi, front left, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, shakes hands with Zhang Zhijun, front right, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, before their meeting in Nanjing, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014.

NANJING, China — Representatives of China and Taiwan met Tuesday in Nanjing for their highest-level talks since their split in 1949, a landmark step despite Beijing’s refusal to recognize the self-governing island’s sovereignty.

The choice of Nanjing as the venue has special resonance because it was the capital of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government during the war against Mao Zedong’s Communists before the Nationalists were forced 65 years ago to flee the mainland for Taiwan. It also is the location of the tomb of the founder of republican China, Sun Yat-sen, who is revered in both Beijing and Taipei.

Expectations for the meeting, which will shift after two days to Shanghai, were measured.

The head of the Chinese delegation, Zhang Zhijun, said the talks were aimed at consolidating the consensus reached at previous meetings. He didn’t offer any specifics.

“Our meeting had been something unimaginable before, but if we really want to achieve breakthroughs we must apply a bit of creativity,” Zhang said.

Taiwan’s lead negotiator, Wang Yu-chi, said the meeting “shows that the two sides’ relations have truly entered a new stage and this is truly a day for the record books.”

While the official agenda for the talks was not disclosed, it was likely to have been heavily focused on trade. Beijing wants to see Taiwan ratify a trade services agreement that would allow the sides to open a wide range of businesses in each other’s territory. Beijing approved the accord more than six months ago but it remains stuck in Taiwan’s legislature, a reflection of public fears of being overwhelmed by their giant neighbor.

It is in China’s interests to build trade relations with Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory and wants to eventually reunify. Previous threats to attack the island if it declares formal independence or delays unification indefinitely have only antagonized Taiwanese people. In 1995-96, China fired missiles, conducted military exercises off the Taiwanese coast, and tried to influence its internal politics, further alienating Taiwanese people.

But China took a less confrontational approach a decade ago under former President and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao. The policy received a boost when the pro-China government of President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008, giving Beijing the opportunity to use the trade carrot as the centerpiece of its Taiwan policy in the apparent hope that it would force Taiwanese people to look at relations with China more favorably and tamp anti-China sentiments.

Since 2008, trade doubled to $197.2 billion last year. Taiwan enjoys a $116 billion trade surplus with China, one of the few countries or regions that can boast that. Taiwanese companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in the mainland, with companies such as Foxconn employing millions of workers making iPhones, Playstations and other popular goods.

Taiwan also benefits heavily from an opening to Chinese tourists, who travel across the 150-kilometer (100-mile) Taiwan Strait.