http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/06/asia/taiwan.phpBEIJING: President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan met with a senior Chinese envoy in Taipei on Thursday in a bid to improve diplomatic ties between their governments after the envoy signed transportation and trade agreements earlier in the week with Taiwanese negotiators.
The meeting was one of the highest-level exchanges between officials from mainland China and Taiwan since 1949, when the Kuomintang, the party led by Chiang Kai-shek, lost the Chinese civil war to the Communists and retreated to Taiwan. Ma is a member of the Kuomintang, or KMT.
The Beijing government considers Taiwan a rebel province and has promised to draw it back into Communist rule, by force it necessary. Many people in Taiwan support maintaining the status quo of de facto independence, and some advocate formal independence. The policies of the opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, lean toward outright independence.
The meeting between Ma and the Chinese envoy, Chen Yunlin, began at 11 a.m. and lasted only five minutes, according to Xinhua, the mainland's official state news agency. The two officials exchanged gifts: Chen presented Ma with a painting of a horse (Ma's surname means horse), and Ma gave Chen a piece of fine porcelain.
Despite the warming of relations, Ma said Thursday that "we can't deny that there still exists differences and challenges, especially regarding Taiwan's security and international status."
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U.S. airstrike reported to hit Afghan weddingTaiwan president and Chinese envoy meet in effort to strengthen tiesNorth Korea releases flurry of reports on KimChen did not address Ma as zongtong - president. Doing so would have implied that the mainland recognizes the de facto independent status of Taiwan. The question of how Chen would address Ma was much discussed by political analysts in the mainland and Taiwan even before Chen arrived in Taipei on Monday for the start of his five-day visit, and nationalists in Taiwan were irate on Thursday after they learned that Chen avoided using Ma's formal title.
Hundreds of protesters opposed to close ties with the mainland gathered around the meeting site, a government guesthouse, to denounce the two officials, according to news agencies. The riot police barricaded streets and stood in long lines with shields and batons. The previous night, Chen had been trapped by protesters in a hotel, the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, while attending a banquet there.
Hundreds of protesters surrounded the hotel, chanting, throwing eggs and burning Chinese flags, according to news agencies. The riot police clashed with the protesters, and dozens of people were injured.
The meeting on Thursday was moved up five hours because of the protests the previous night.
The chairwoman of the DPP, Tsai Ing-wen, said this week that Ma had failed to defend Taiwan's sovereignty and was conceding too much too quickly to the Beijing government.
Chen also attended a ceremony on Thursday to mark an upcoming exchange of two giant pandas, a gift symbolic of China, for an indigenous goat and deer from Taiwan, Reuters reported.
He is also set to watch "Cape No. 7," a made-in-Taiwan blockbuster movie that has become a source of pride for the island and which is expected to be shown in China, the first Taiwan film to be allowed a screening in years, Reuters said.
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