Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/07
By: Kuo Chung-han and Lee Mei-yu
Taipei, Nov. 7 (CNA) The historic meeting between Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英
九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is the first direct contact between the top leaders from both sides since Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
But it is not the first time that the two former political rivals have discussed bilateral ties. What follows is a brief overview of the important meetings between the Republic of China government and the Communist Party of China (CPC), from 1993 to the present:
In 1993, Chairman of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and the President of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Wang Daohan (汪道涵) met in Singapore April 27-29, which was the first meeting between Taipei and Beijing since 1949.
In October of 1998, Koo and Wang met again in Shanghai and agreed to strengthen dialogue and continue negotiations. The second Koo-Wang meeting lasted for four days. [FULL STORY]