China closed a chapter in its history this week with the visit to the mainland by Mr. Lien Chan, the head of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party. Mr. Lien's trip was the first by a KMT leader since Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949, abandoning the country to Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party. It is tantalizing to think that the visit might herald a breakthrough in cross-strait relations, but it is the product of tactical calculations by both sides. The question now is whether it will increase tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
Mr. Lien's visit marked the highest-level meetings between Chinese and Taiwanese officials since the Chinese civil war. During his eight-day visit, Mr. Lien visited Nanjing, the capital of China when the Nationalists ruled; Xian, his birthplace; Shanghai; and Beijing, where he had a nationally televised meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Afterward, the two sides released a party-to-party communique that acknowledged the 1992 consensus on "one China." They called for the resumption of cross-strait negotiations based on the '92 consensus, a peace treaty, increased economic exchange, consultations on Taiwan's participation in international activities, and the establishment of a platform for party-to-party contact.