The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Taipei

A landmark meeting on Saturday between China's president and Taiwan's vice president-elect broke 60 years of ice and paved the way for trade and transit links such as regular direct flights, local media and analysts said. "This meeting means that the two sides are going to enter an era of negotiations," said Chao Chien-min, a political analyst at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. "Yesterday's encounter should pose no problem, because it did not touch on any political topics," he said. "This had to do with Taiwan people's actual interests, so how could anyone oppose it?" China, which has about 170 allies including the world's most powerful nations, has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and pledged to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.