The handshake between Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and visiting Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan tomorrow will establish party-to-party contact as a new model for dialogue between the mainland and Taiwan.
By overcoming bitter memories of the civil war, mainland analysts say, the party chiefs would share a poignant historical moment which they hoped would put them in the driver's seat when it came to deciding the course of cross-strait relations.
'The party-to-party dialogue is better than a shouting match across the Taiwan Strait,' said Liu Zhentao , director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University.
The two party leaders were likely to lay out their strategic visions tomorrow as more concrete topics - such as direct links, agricultural trade and the protection of Taiwanese businesses - had been addressed by Mr Lien's deputy, Chiang Ping-kun, three weeks ago, he said.
By embarking on his landmark tour, Mr Lien was also attempting to bring the KMT's history back into focus in the intense competition for his party's leadership, said Qiao Xinsheng , a professor of law at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan . Mr Lien is scheduled to step down in August.
Mr Hu, for his part, is expected to reassert his basic position that as long as the two sides agree on the one-China principle, anything can be discussed.
