In a historic meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping last Saturday met Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou for talks and dinner. The encounter was the first between leaders of China and Taiwan since 1949. While the meeting was applauded by most global audiences, it triggered powerful emotions in Taiwan, where opposition party members see it as an attempt to interfere in elections to be held next year. That may well be an accurate characterization of Beijing's intentions, but the people of Taiwan — plainly — can see through such machinations. Cross-strait conversations are to be encouraged, however, as long as Taiwan's democracy is respected.
The top leadership in China and Taiwan has not had a direct conversation since the end of the civil war that brought the Communists to power in 1949. There have been many meetings of their representatives, but the symbolism of the two leaders together has been too powerful for the Communist Party leadership; for Beijing, the leader of Taiwan is the head of a renegade province, whose status is a challenge to the very legitimacy of the ruling party on the mainland.
Ma is a stalwart member of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, which lost China to the Communists and fled to Taiwan after the end of the civil war. He came to power in 2008 pledging to stabilize relations with China, and forging a good relationship has been the hallmark of this administration.