Symbolism as substance

摘要

There were no flags and no titles on the nameplates. There could be no suggestion that the meeting was of equals, as one side imagined, nor that it was of a supplicant greeting his master, as the other would prefer to believe. But on February nth, in the Chinese city of Nanjing, the heads of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, Wang Yu-chi (pictured, left), and China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, shook hands and sat down for talks. Leaders of the two sides have met before but this was the first formal meeting between ministers in their government capacities since China and Taiwan split in 1949.