Symbolism as substance

THERE were no flags and no titles on the nameplates. There could be no suggestion that the meeting was of equals, as one side imagined, nor that it was of a supplicant greeting his master, as the other would prefer to believe. But on February 11th, in the Chinese city of Nanjing, the heads of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, Wang Yu-chi (pictured, left), and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, shook hands and sat down for talks. Leaders of the two sides have met before but this was the first formal meeting between ministers in their government capacities since China and Taiwan split in 1949.

As jets have scrambled over the East China Sea and fishing boats have faced off in the South China Sea, Taiwan since 2008 has been an island of comparative calm. Relations between the governments of Taiwan and China, once the most strained in the region, have achieved a remarkable stability. The meeting of the two sides was an attempt to keep it so, especially with the prospect of change ahead. The party that rules Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT), faces the possibility of losses in local elections this year and of losing the presidency in 2016. Chinese leaders see time running out to consolidate the improved relationship.