Two Chinese Presidents Meet in Shangri-La

On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a 20-minute meeting with his counterpart from across the Taiwan Strait, President Ma Ying-jeou, followed by dinner in Singapore's Shangri-La Hotel. Both the Communist-ruled People's Republic of China and Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) claim to be the sole rightful government of all of China. This state of affairs precluded all government-to-government contact between China and Taiwan until 2013, when the minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office met with the minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council in a hotel lobby on the sidelines of the 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. This modest start to low-key official contacts laid the groundwork for Saturday's meeting -- the first between the heads of state on both sides of the Taiwan Strait....