China rolls out red carpet as it hosts a Taiwan politician

Strife between Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek and Communists led by Mao Zedong runs through Chinese modern history like a huge roiling river. The last meeting between the two dates to a failed American attempt to stop the resumption of a civil war that had only been delayed to drive out the Japanese. American envoy Patrick Hurley guaranteed safe passage to Mao for a six-week meeting in Chongqing.

Ironically at the time Mao was not thinking in terms of controlling all China. Records show Mao would have accepted a coalition government and cessation of military action in exchange for a free hand in North China. Yet Generalissimo Chiang was so confident of US backing, and of his role in Chinese history, that he dismissed all compromises. A final communique in Oct. 1945 masked over colossal disagreements, Mr. Hurley resigned shortly after, and four years later, Mao drove Chang off the mainland to Taiwan.

A meeting between Hu and Lien may help soften China's recent profile in Asia, analysts say. In recent months, the regional atmosphere has gotten slightly uneasy. Just last month, the People's Congress in China passed a hard-edged "anti-secession" law aimed at Taiwan that was widely seen as a possible pretext someday for a military attack across the Taiwan straits. This month, Beijing appeared to allow, if not encourage, mobs of egg- throwing anti-Japanese protesters to run through its usually well-policed urban streets.

Yet Hu's willingness to host the leader of the Nationalists from Taiwan, which allows talk about the greater Chinese family, and economic integration, may allow Hu to present his country in a better light. One new rallying point during the upcoming May 1 state holidays, in fact, will be the common ground represented by the figure of Sun Yat-sen, whom both sides accept as the founder of modern China. In recent years, one by one, the posters of Stalin, Lenin, Engels, and Marx that used to appear at May 1 celebrations on Tiananmen Square have been replaced by Dr. Sun.

"Lien and Hu are offering a simple message - that we are all Chinese and we all want to live in a modern state founded by Sun Yat Sen," says one Beijing scholar. "Coming after the antisecession law, Hu's tactics appear similar to [former Chinese leader] Deng Xiaoping's tactics. You first act tough and threaten, then you offer something sweet."

Phone interviews of 1,000 urban Chinese by a former state-run agency, the Social Survey Institute of China, found that 81 percent of the respondents say the news of Lien's visit has filled the mainland with "warm feelings," and "enabled the general public to see the hope of peaceful cross-strait reunification."

On May 5, another leading Taiwanese politician arrives in Beijing: James Soong of the small People First Party. Mr. Soong, Lien's running mate last year, has often been viewed as an ardent supporter of Beijing and its unification agenda.

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