WORLD
Leaders of China and Taiwan meet for first time in nearly seven decades
Baku, November 7, AZERTAC
The leaders of China and Taiwan met for the first time in almost seven decades on Saturday as Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou began a historic summit in Singapore with a minute-long handshake, according to The Guardian.
“Nothing can separate us,” Xi told his Taiwanese counterpart in brief public remarks following the handshake. “We are one family.”
Ma told Xi both sides had been working “to replace conflict with dialogue ... We follow different political systems but we have developed military and economic cooperation,” he said.
The meeting between Communist party chief Xi, and Nationalist president Ma, was the first time two such leaders had come together since Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The last encounter between communist and nationalist leaders came in August 1945 when Mao and Chiang Kai-shek came together in Chongqing for seven weeks of talks.