Taiwan opposition leader Lien Chan and Chinese President Hu Jintao closed the book on decades of hostility on Friday April29 with a simple handshake in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
The civil war enemies agreed in a two-hour meeting that they described as frank and friendly to work to end enmity between the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, and the Chinese Communist Party and avoid military conflict in the Taiwan Strait, one of Asia's most dangerous flashpoints.
"I believe the door has been opened. How to walk toward a new future, toward a new outlook, through this door, I think the ruling party has to shoulder more responsibilities," Lien said. The KMT and the Communists pledged to push for resumption of dialogue between Taipei and Beijing, stalled since 1999.
Lien said in his Peking University address on Friday that neither Taipei nor Beijing should upset the status quo which has kept the peace between them for decades. The KMT espouses eventual reunification with a democratic China.
The KMT, or Nationalist Party, ruled China for more than three decades after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. (Source: Kang Lim and John Ruwitch, Reuters, Apr. 29, 2005)