Breaking a month-long silence since his inauguration as Taiwan's first pro-independence leader, the President, Mr Chen Shui-bian, yesterday invited the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, to hold summit talks.
The talks, he said, could be held anywhere, at any time and without preconditions, along the lines of last week's historic meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea.
The response from Beijing was, as expected, that the condition for talks remained the same, that is, that Taiwan accept the principle of "one China", which it has yet to do. But it was restrained and moderate in tone, in marked contrast to the threatening posture of China during the Taiwan election campaign.
Mr Chen, who has exuded good will and sincerity towards Beijing since his election, made his appeal at a carefully-scripted press conference in Taipei. "The two sides of the [Taiwan] straits have the wisdom and originality to rewrite history and create history," he said. "I sincerely invite the leader of China, Mr Jiang Zemin, to join hands and work to create a moment like the handshake between North and South Korea.
"If North and South Korea can, why can't the two sides of the strait?" he asked.
Mr Chen said the meeting should not be limited by preconditions, form or location, and suggested that the US could help. "If the United States is willing, it can play a more active role," he said. "Keeping peace between the two sides of the strait is not just in Taiwan's interest, it is also in the United States' mutual interest."
Many analysts believe that there are behind-the-scenes contacts between China and Taiwan in a search for a peaceful formula, and that the invitation was signalled to Beijing in advance. Whether it was or not, Mr Chen has astutely seized the diplomatic initiative in calling for a meeting like that between the President of South Korea, Mr Kim Dae-jung, and Mr Kim Jong-il of North Korea, which has brought hopes of peaceful unification in Korea.
In a further gesture to Beijing, Mr Chen said Taiwan might back China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. "We do not rule out the possibility of supporting the Beijing authorities so that their bid to host it could be smooth," he said, adding that Taiwan could co-host some of the sporting events if Beijing won the bid.
"It appears very sensitive and impossible now, but there are still eight years. So long as everybody is willing to shake hands and reconcile, nothing is impossible."
The issue of "one China" is at the heart of the rumbling crisis.
Beijing considers the island, to which the losing Nationalist army fled after the 1949 communist revolution, to be a breakaway province. Its "one China" policy states that there is only one China, of which Taiwan is an inseparable part.
Mr Chen said Taiwan was willing to deal with the issue of a future "one China" on the "present basis", that is, where each side could have its own interpretation of "one China".
Beijing wants Taipei to return to a 1992 consensus between the two sides that there is only "one China", rather than accepting the declaration of the former Taiwan president, Mr Lee Teng-hui, last year that relations between the two entities were on a state-to-state basis. Mr Chen's Democratic Progressive Party's election to office in March ended more than five decades of nationalist rule in Taiwan. In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Zhu Bangzao, said: "We demand that Taiwan's leadership recognise the principle that there is one China and Taiwan is a part of China. Under this precondition anything can be discussed."
Mr Zhu also poured cold water on Mr Chen's suggestion that there was room for more US participation in improving Taiwan-China relations. "The Taiwan issue is entirely China's internal affair and China is fully capable of handling it without interference from outside," he said. He called on the US to halt arms sales to Taiwan and refrain from official contacts with the island's government.
Mr Chen also apologised for a recent incident involving his daughter, Ms Chen Hsing-yu, who hit a television cameraman at her graduation ceremony, telling him to stop filming and let her have some privacy.