President Xi Jinping of China, and the leader of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, will meet on Saturday in Singapore, the first such meeting since the Chinese Communist revolution of 1949 and the retreat of the Chinese nationalists across the Taiwan Strait.
The office in charge of Taiwan relations in Beijing said in a brief statement that the two leaders would exchange views on promoting developments during a long scheduled two-day visit of Mr. Xi to Singapore, a country that has good relations with both sides.
The director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Zhang Zhijun, said the meeting had been arranged “given the situation of the irresolution of cross-strait political differences.”
A spokesman for Mr. Ma, whose Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party is floundering at the polls before elections early next year, announced the meeting late Tuesday night. Mr. Ma’s spokesman, Charles Chen, said that no agreements were envisioned. The meeting with Mr. Ma fits with the bold style of Mr. Xi, who has shown that he likes to take more risks in foreign policy than his predecessors.