Taiwan's Lien and China's Hu to meet today

BEIJING - China's Communist Party and its civil war foe, Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT), may formally end their hostilities in a historic meeting between their leaders in Beijing on Friday - their highest level contact in 56 years.

A declaration to end animosity would isolate Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, reviled in China for pushing for formal independence for the self-ruled democratic island which Beijing still claims as its own.

Lien Chan, the first chairman of the KMT, or Nationalist Party, to visit China since the end of the civil war in 1949, is due to meet Chinese Communist Party chief and President Hu Jintao on Friday.

Analysts say the two parties may announce an end to decades of animosity after the landmark meeting between the leaders.

"The Taiwan issue is a holdover from the civil war between the KMT and the Communists. The two parties could officially declare an end to the civil war and the state of hostility between them," said Zhou Qing, a veteran Taiwan watcher.

The civil war ended with the defeated KMT fleeing to Taiwan after ruling China for decades since the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. No armistice or peace agreement was ever signed.

During their afternoon meeting, Lien will give Hu and other Chinese leaders six boxes each of Taiwan bananas, pineapple, papaya, mango and other fruit, a KMT spokesman told reporters.

China could exempt Taiwan fruit from import duties in an apparent bid to help the KMT win over supporters of President Chen in southern Taiwan, a mainly agricultural region with a surplus of fruit.

"There could be a big breakthrough on Taiwan farm goods, " said a member of Lien's delegation who requested anonymity.

JOURNEY OF PEACE

Lien has been denounced by pro-independence die-hards as a traitor for making what he has called a journey of peace amid a "grave stalemate" in cross-Straits relations.

Tensions have simmered since China passed the Anti-Secession Law in March mandating war or other "non-peaceful" means if the self-ruled island formally declares statehood.

President Chen, who routed Lien in elections in 2000 and 2004, has warned him against signing any agreements with Beijing, but later gave his blessings to the trip.

"Nothing will be signed," the delegation member told Reuters, seeking to deflect criticism. "But the KMT and the Communist Party could announce consensus on improving cross-Strait relations and opposition to Taiwan independence."

"We also have the '92 consensus," the source said, referring to an agreement in which Beijing and Taiwan's previous KMT administration agreed to their own interpretations of "one China" which led to detente and landmark talks.

Beijing has rolled out the red carpet for Lien in a divide-and-conquer bid. On Friday morning, Lien will speak to students at Peking University, an honour usually accorded to visiting foreign leaders.

The KMT, which supports reunification between Taiwan and a democratic China, unilaterally declared an end to the state of hostility with Beijing in 1991 while it was still in power.

The KMT is Taiwan's biggest opposition party after ruling Taiwan for five decades.

- REUTERS