China, Taiwan leaders to meet for first time in 70 years

BEIJING

The presidents of China and Taiwan will have a chance to meet face-to-face for the first time in more than 70 years during a scheduled meeting in Singapore on Saturday.

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday that an official in Beijing had revealed China's President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou were scheduled to meet.

Zhang Zhijun, head of the Chinese Communist Party's Taiwan Work Office and the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said, "They will exchange views on promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations."

He said the two countries' delegations had decided via consultation that the meeting would be held in the name of the leaders.

"It is a pragmatic arrangement in accordance with the one-China principle while cross-Strait political differences have not been resolved," Zhang added.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Foreign Press Liaison Office has issued a statement saying the meeting will mark a "historic milestone in cross-strait relations".

"The major objective of the meeting will be to consolidate cross-strait peace and maintain the status quo," the statement quoted Mainland Affairs Council Minister Hsia Li-yan as saying.

"Taiwan insists that the meeting can only proceed under conditions of equal and dignified status," he said, adding that "no agreement will be signed and no joint statement issued."

The Mainland Affairs Council also noted in the statement that the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations is in the interests of each side, as well as the international community.

"President Ma’s aim, with a view to Taiwan’s long-term future, is to promote the welfare of the people, establish a basis for institutionalized leaders’ meetings, and advance mutual trust between the two sides," it added.

Since Chinese nationalist leaders fled to Taiwan in 1949 after a brutal civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists, China has seen the region as a breakaway province that will eventually return.

Any official dialogue between the two countries' leaders might be acknowledged as recognizing each other's legitimacy, therefore the two sides will refer to each other as "Mr."

In a separate piece, Xinhua said it was no coincidence that Singapore was chosen as the venue.

Head of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, Wang Daohan, and Chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, Koo Chen-fu, met there in Apr. 1993.

The two leaders will reportedly attend a dinner after their meeting.

In May, China's President Xi Jinping met Taiwan's ruling party chairman Eric Chu, marking the highest level of talks in six years.

*Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun contributed to this story from Ankara.