Monday, April 7, 2008

NYT Archive 1989: Taiwan's First Official Delegate to Beijing

On April 7, 1989, Sheryl WuDunn reported on New York Times that Taiwan had decided to send its first official delegation to Beijing for the Asian Development Bank conference in that May. By the spring 1989, the relationship across the Taiwan Strait had improved greatly. It had become very common for people from Taiwan to visit the mainland or even invest in various business activities. But still there were no official contacts between the two governments.

Just like the Gorbachev visit, this historic occasion would end up being completely overshadowed by the student movement unfolding. Indeed, Zhao Ziyang used the Asian Development Bank conference itself as a forum, just as he used his meeting with Gorbachev, to send his signals to the movement.

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