Two Chinese guys shaking hands.

That's Wang Yu-chi at left of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Zhang Zhijun, right, of the People's Republic of China.

That's the first time a direct government-to-government meeting has occurred between the two since 1949 and it happened today. I cannot imagine that happening in the U.S. Let's say the Confederate States of America moved a little further south in 1865, say to Cuba. Set up their own government there. In 1923 a representative of President Harding meets with a representative of President Nathan Beford Forrest II? No.

Chinese, throughout their history, have been remarkable for the absence of a conquistador mentality. They have been far, far less imperial than Western peoples. They have not explored the world; they have not been as interested in other peoples. What I know (or believe I know) about Chinese history gives me little concern of China suddenly, with their new-found wealth, turning aggressive. Mao said to Kissinger one time, "You can have Taiwan for now, we don't care." But they did intervene in the Korean War against the U.S. They did fight a war against India, and had a mini-war with the Soviet Union. Then, why no war on Taiwan, for godssakes? Why not over Hong Kong before the hand-over? Maybe because the Taiwanese and Hong Kongers were Chinese? Not foreigners?

Is there more here than lack of foreign aggression (if that's here)? It's a pretty "stand-up" thing to do for Xi to send Zhang to meet with Wang, no?  Pretty magnanimous, "forgiving?" "Chinese do not seem to me a very forgiving people," I wrote here recently.  Pretty stand-up thing to do, anyway.