By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - A landmark meeting on Saturday betweenChina's president and Taiwan's vice president-elect broke 60years of ice and paved the way for trade and transit links suchas regular direct flights, local media and analysts said.
"This meeting means that the two sides are going to enteran era of negotiations," said Chao Chien-min, a politicalanalyst at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
"Yesterday's encounter should pose no problem, because itdid not touch on any political topics," he said. "This had todo with Taiwan people's actual interests, so how could anyoneoppose it?"
China, which has about 170 allies including the world'smost powerful nations, has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as itsterritory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 andpledged to bring the island under its rule, by force ifnecessary.
Political differences have effectively barred high-levelcontact between the two sides for the past six decades, butTaiwan's economy depends increasingly on China.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan Vice President-electVincent Siew shook hands and talked one-on-one, mostly inprivate, for 20 minutes with 12 delegates apiece at the April11-13 Boao Forum for Asia in southern China.
Hu and Siew, who attended in a private capacity, avoidedpolitics in the live broadcast portions of their meeting.
Local media bannered the story across their front andinside pages, pronouncing it the highest-level Taiwan-Chinameeting since 1949 and a turning point in chilled relations.
"Both sides of the Taiwan Strait took a big step forward,"the United Daily News said in an editorial on Sunday. "TheSiew-Hu meeting had more than just symbolic value."
Taiwan media detailed Siew's four-point agenda of moredirect flights, more Chinese tourists, normalised trade tiesand the resumption of negotiation mechanisms.
Hu was quoted saying China would continue promotingeconomic cooperation, more direct flights and increasedtourism.
Direct flights are banned, except during holiday seasons,for security reasons, usually forcing layovers in Hong Kong orMacau. Chinese tourists seldom enter Taiwan due to the island'sfear of security breaches and overstays.
Taiwan's Liberty Times reported that only the currentgovernment is empowered to negotiate with China. Hu also jabbedat President Chen Shui-bian, the island-wide daily paper said.
Chen, who was first elected in 2000 and steps down nextmonth due to term limits, seeks greater independence fromChina. Siew and President-elect Ma Ying-jeou of the NationalistParty (KMT) won the March 22 polls and will take office on May20.
"Hu took a veiled slap at the Chen government's eightyears, that is 'for reasons clear to everyone' cross-Straitrelations have taken twists and turns at every level," thepaper said.
Questions also remain about what else Hu and Siew may havediscussed.
"They only talked for 20 minutes, and the conversationhasn't been released," said Bruce Jacobs, Asian Studiesprofessor at Australia's Monash University.
(Editing by Bill Tarrant)
