September 24, 2014
On a Ma Ying-jeou-Xi Jinping Meeting

by Richard C. Bush III

For several months now, there has been talk of a meeting between Taiwan's president Ma Ying-jeou and the People's Republic of China president Xi Jinping. Such an event would be the first time that the leaders of the two sides had met since the late 1940s. After 65 years of relations that were ambivalent at best and downright dangerous at worst, a Ma-Xi meeting would affirm the changes for the better that have occurred since Ma came to power and suggest a promise of more to come.

Both Beijing and Taipei talk approvingly about the idea of a summit, but there are a number of issues that must be resolved before the offices of the two leaders can start blocking off schedules. All of these issues derive from the fundamental disagreement between Taipei and Beijing over the legal and political character of the government in Taipei, whose formal name is the Republic of China. Is it a sovereign entity as Taipei asserts? Or is it a non-sovereign entity with a status lower than the PRC authorities, as Beijing claims?

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