China, Taiwan Meet for First Talks

China, Taiwan Meet for First Talks

It’s a good day for thawing decades-old Asian rivalries. Officials from Taiwan and China held their first official talks today since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Both parties appear enthusiastic about the meeting, despite the fact that it was largely symbolic. "Before today’s meeting, it was hard to imagine that cross-strait relations could get to this point,” said Wang Yu-chi, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. Zhang Zhijun, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said, “We should cherish it and work together to maintain this favorable momentum.” Though China fired missiles into the waters around Taiwan in 1995 and 1996, relations between the two have been slowly warming up. Cross-strait trade has increased and nearly 3 million Chinese visited Taiwan last year.