Xi on Taiwan: ‘Both sides belong to one country’
November 7, 2015, 6:08 pm

Xi, left, and Ma followed up their meeting with a formal dinner [Xinhua]

The summit in Singapore between Xi and Ma marks the highest level meeting of Chinese and Taiwanese leaders since the island politically split from the mainland more than six decades ago.

“The past 66 years has shown the bonds between people across the Straits. No matter how long we have been parted and how much difficulties we have gone through, we are still family and blood is always thicker than water,” Xi said in the opening remarks to Ma.

“We should show the world that we could solve our own problems and together make a greater contribution to the world,” he said.

“Both sides belong to one country… That fact and legal basis has never changed, and will never change,” Xi said, referring to Beijing’s longstanding desire for reunification.

Ma, who became president of Taiwan in 2008, has built his leadership advocating for closer ties with China.

“Both the past and the future of the two sides [have been brought together] across the Strait, as well as the hopes of the rise of the Chinese nation,” Ma responded.

The talks have been called historic by many media pundits in China, which has always regarded Taiwan as breakaway territory.

Although the two countries remain technically at war, trade and tourism has increased between the two.

Ma has worked hard at warming up to Beijing.

Saturday’s meeting is a “victory of peace and rationality,” said an oped in Beijing’s official People’s Daily.

“The Xi-Ma meeting is a major breakthrough in relations between Taiwan and the mainland. It will exert a positive influence on the island’s future policy toward the mainland and lay a firm foundation for the way the world perceives this relationship,” it continued.

Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, was formed by Nationalist forces opposed to the rule of Communist Mao Zedong who renewed their civil war between 1946 until their defeat and evacuation to the island in 1949.

In the decades since, the relationship between the two sides has been characterized by hostility and distrust.

Ties began to significantly improve in 2008 when Ma won the presidency.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies