From AP:
Chinese President Hu Jintao met Saturday with a former Taiwanese opposition leader and called for closer economic and cultural ties between the estranged sides, a state news agency reported.
Hu and Lien Chan, honorary chairman of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party, met at a forum on Chinese-Taiwanese business ties, the Xinhua News Agency reported. It said they were to discuss direct airline and travel links between Taiwan and the mainland.
Beijing has been nurturing links with Taiwan’s opposition in an effort to isolate Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. Chen’s party wants to make the self-governing island’s de facto independence permanent _ a step the communist mainland says would lead to war. [Full Text]
Also read BBC report: China-Taiwan Forum Opens Amid Row
