Chinese Officials in 1st Meeting on Taiwan

In another tentative step toward ending their 45-year standoff, Chinese and Taiwanese officials met on Taiwanese soil Saturday for the first time.

Previously, Taiwan had opened its borders to representatives from Beijing only for private, personal visits. The two sides have been meeting on a semiofficial basis since April, with all but one of the encounters in China. The first was in Singapore.

Saturday’s talks drew protests from Taiwan’s independence movement. Taiwan went its own way in 1949 when it became the last refuge for the Nationalist Party after Communists took over mainland China.

Both countries seek reunification, but on their own terms.

For now, China and Taiwan are not trying to resolve their refusal to recognize each other, just to regulate unofficial relations rooted in their shared culture and, more recently, boosted by booming trade.

The talks, to last six days, touched on what to do with the 12 hijackers of nine airplanes from China to Taiwan this year.

Taiwan had refused to return the hijackers, who have all requested political asylum. China says some of the hijackers are criminals fleeing not political repression but police or debts.