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Shanghai: The presidents of China and Taiwan have held a historic first meeting both sides hailed as a breakthrough moment in cross-straits relations after decades of animosity.
Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou smiled broadly as they shook hands for more than a minute, turning from side to side as they posed for the hundreds of photographers and reporters crammed into a hotel meeting room in Singapore on Saturday.
In brief comments made before the pair sat down for the hour-long closed door talks, Mr Xi described their meeting as a "historic" moment which opened a new chapter in relations between the two sides.
"We are brothers connected by flesh even if our bones are broken, we are a family whose blood is thicker than water," Mr Xi said in comments beamed live on national television across the mainland. "History will remember today," he added.
In response, Mr Ma said cross-strait ties were the "best we've seen since 1949", when the two sides were locked in civil war, and proposed a hotline between cross-strait agencies to preserve them.
"Both sides should respect each other's values and way of life," Mr Ma said. "Over the past 66 years the two sides have developed as different systems. Turning military conflict into peaceful development has definitely not been an overnight effort."
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Zhang Zhijun, the head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said Mr Xi had agreed a hotline would help the two sides handle problems. Significantly, he said Mr Xi understood Taiwan's desire for a bigger international presence and would be welcome to take part in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The move is a significant gesture toward Taiwan's Kuomintang government, and a signal to voters that there were tangible benefits for returning a Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) government.
Mr Ma's KMT is lagging heavily in the polls for January's election, where it is expected to cede both the presidency and control of the legislature to the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by Tsai Ing-wen, which has a more restrained approach to dealing with Beijing. Mr Ma has denied his meeting with his Chinese counterpart was motivated by electoral considerations.
"With an election in Taiwan just over nine weeks away, and the opposition DPP candidate well ahead in the polls, Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears to want to remind Taiwan's voters that the positive trends under President Ma could be at risk if they choose the DPP again," said Douglas H. Paul at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
China's national broadcaster CCTV did not carry Mr Ma's comments live, immediately cutting away to analysts in the studio after Mr Xi had completed his opening remarks.
It was another sign of the carefully-managed sensitivities and protocols surrounding the meeting, with China wanting to avoid any appearance of acknowledging Taiwan's sovereignty, and Mr Ma desperate to avoid being seen to be subordinate to China or Mr Xi.
The two men referred to each other as "mister" instead of "president" and split the bill at a low-key dinner. There were no flags or other state symbols present in the meeting room, which was decorated in yellow – a colour agreed upon by both sides for its neutrality between Communist Party red and KMT's blue. Mr Xi, however, did wear a red tie, and Mr Ma wore a blue one.
It was the first meeting of the leader of the Republic of China, more commonly called Taiwan, and the leader of the People's Republic of China. The two governments have been rivals since 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalists, fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists, who established the People's Republic of China that year. Those two leaders last met in 1945.
In 1992, China and Taiwan agreed to acknowledge the existence of "one China" while keeping their own interpretation of what that means; comments from both leaders were threaded with remarks which signalled neither side would alter their view.
Saturday's meeting was the culmination of a seven-year period of rapprochement under Mr Ma, following decades of diplomatic frostiness and, at times, open hostility.
But closer ties with the mainland have provoked a backlash in Taiwan over concerns of Beijing's growing influence, while opposition politicians have questioned whether Mr Ma, a deeply unpopular lame duck president in his final months in power, holds enough of a popular mandate to stage such an important summit on the island's behalf.
About 100 protesters carrying "Taiwan independence" banners attempted to storm the heavily-guarded parliament building in central Taipei in the early hours of Saturday morning, but were stopped by police.
Demonstrations continued throughout the day, with some burning images of both leaders and chanting slogans calling Mr Xi a "Chinese dictator" and Mr Ma a "traitor".
