In Milestone, Taiwan's President Meets Key Chinese Envoy

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 6 -- Marking the highest-level contact between China and Taiwan's government in 60 years, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met briefly with Beijing's most senior envoy for Taiwan, Chen Yunlin, on Thursday at a government guesthouse as thousands of protesters loudly shouted anti-China slogans outside.

The historic meeting was a sign of detente in one of Asia's longest-running disputes. Military tensions have run high since 1949, when the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek lost the Chinese civil war and fled to Taiwan. Beijing has since insisted that Taiwan is a renegade province, to be brought under Chinese control by military force if necessary. It has refused to recognize the Nationalists' government, which democratically rules Taiwan. The United States, the island's main military supplier, has pledged to defend Taiwan from an unprovoked attack.

But Chen's willingness to make contact with Ma, a Nationalist, indicated that Beijing is softening its position toward Taiwan, analysts said.

"The two sides of the Taiwan Strait have their differences and challenges, especially regarding Taiwan's security and international status," Ma said Thursday during the open meeting. But he added that he hoped the two sides could resolve their differences by not denying the other's existence and by working for peace.

Chen, the most senior Chinese official to visit the island since 1949, did not say much during the short meeting, and did not address Ma as president, in a sign Beijing will still not openly acknowledge the Taiwanese government's sovereignty.

This infuriated the independence protesters outside, who were creating a din that could be heard miles away by blowing horns, banging gongs and shouting slogans. Many interpreted Ma's acceptance of Chen's treatment as surrender.

"Ma's not acting like a president, he's acting like a lackey of a Chinese emperor," said Lai Ho-an, a middle-aged man wearing a yellow ribbon around his head emblazoned with the slogan "Taiwan my country."

Groups of protesters, many of them supporters of the opposition, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, later battled with riot police as they tried to push down barbed-wire barricades blocking streets.

The number of protesters -- many waving green flags and carrying placards with slogans such as "Communist bandit, get out of Taiwan" -- swelled in the late afternoon to 200,000, an opposition party official said. Police would not give a crowd estimate.