China and Taiwan try to heal divisions

TAIWAN'S vice-president-elect Vincent Siew met briefly Chinese president Hu Jintao yesterday on the mainland, a historic moment given strained China-Taiwan relations. Both said they wanted closer economic ties.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It has pledged to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary. These political differences have effectively barred high-level contact between the two sides for six decades.

"The visit signals in concrete terms a beginning of detente across the Strait," said Lin Chong-pin, a former Taiwan government official and president of the Taipei-based Foundation on International and Cross-strait Studies. "So far that (detente] has only been atmospheric."