The Science of Symbolism.docVIP

The Science of Symbolism 　　When the meeting between Chi- nese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese leader Ma Yingjeou， held in Singapore this November， was first announced， the news left observers reeling. 　　The brief summit marked the first-ever meeting between leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949， which resulted in the retreat of the Kuomintang （KMT） government of the Republic of China （ROC） to the island， as the victorious Communists declared the founding of the Peoples Republic of China （PRC） on the mainland. 　　After decades of animosity， the two sides began to engage in indirect talks in the early 1990s through mediated meetings between the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits （ARATS） and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation（SEF）. 　　In 2005， Chinas then President Hu Jintao met with KMT chairman Lien Chan， marking the beginning of party-to-party talks between the two sides， though the KMT was in opposition at the time. 　　Since Ma assumed power in 2008， the cross-Strait relationship has further deepened， but top leaders had never met due to numerous issues of logistics and protocol ranging from terms of address to where such a meeting should be held. 　　 Protocol 　　As Beijing does not recognize the ROC government， it also does not acknowledge Ma as either a head of state or a head of government. Therefore， to meet with Ma， Beijing had to choose between acknowledging him either in a personal capacity or as the leader of the KMT， an arrangement unacceptable to Taipei. 　　In addition， due to its insistence that the cross-Strait relationship is a “domestic” issue， Beijing had also opposed holding any meeting in a third-party country. Taiwans preference， meanwhile， was for a meeting on the sidelines of a separate international event， or on unequivocally foreign soil， in order to avoid its leader appearing to “kowtow” to Beijing. 　　Prior to the November summit， the closest th