From civil war to civil greetings: Why President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou is so significant

President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou will hold a meeting in Singapore on Saturday to discuss cross-strait issues -  the first such meeting of their leaders since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949.

The state-run news agency Xinhua said the meeting would be a "pragmatic arrangement" and "in accordance with the One-China principle".

Here we take a look at the significance of their meeting.

READ MORE: Presidents of mainland China and Taiwan to have first official meeting since 1949: Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou head to Singapore

Why is it so important?

First meeting

Saturday’s meeting between President Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou will be the first of its kind since 1949, when the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, was forced to flee the mainland to the island of Taiwan after it was defeated in a civil war.

Relations between Taiwan and the mainland were frozen until late 1980s. No peace treaty has ever been signed to formally end the civil war. Taiwan’s Central News Agency said Xi had invited Ma to a meeting during his trip to Singapore.

The last meeting between leaders of the two sides was in 1945 between mainland China's Communist Party leader Mao Zedong and Taiwan's KMT founder.