“Historic” is the word being used to describe the meeting set to take place Saturday between the Chinese communist party boss, Xi Jingping, and the President of Free China, Ma Ying-jeou. The Financial Times suggests in an editorial this morning that the word historic “richly applies.” It notes that the last time the communist party leader and the leader of he nationalist Kuomintang met was 1945, when Mao Tse-tung met with President Chiang Kai-shek at the end of World War II. But if the long time between meetings is what makes them historic, count us out.

What we would call historic would be a meeting to which the billion-plus people of China sent a leader who is democratically elected. This is the thing to keep in mind. The meeting in Singapore, which is where this sitdown is set to take place, is a meeting between a communist party strongman and a freely elected leader. The only man in the room with a mandate to speak for his people will be the Free Chinese president, and the burden is going to be on Mr. Xi to make the most of it. It may be China’s last chance at a rapprochement with the Kuomintang.

That’s because Free China, which is a functioning democracy, has an election pending. When voters on Taiwan go to the polls, as they are scheduled to do in January, a good chance obtains they will elect a president from the Democratic Progressive Party. It stands for independence of the island province of Taiwan from China itself, either communist or non-communist. The Chinese communist party views this as an act of treason, but Mr. Xi seems to be, at least for the moment, taking a more conciliatory line. Reportedly the only title of address the two leaders will use is “Mr.”

The last time your editor visited Free China, the parliament, known as the Legislative Yuan, maintained seats from each province of the vast country, not only Taiwan but all the provinces of the Mainland, too. The mainland provinces couldn’t actually elect representatives, of course; the idea of a true election is oxymoronic to communism. Gradually the holdovers died off. But we have never abandoned the idea of a restoration of true democratic rule on the vast mainland via the Yuan in its full national glory.

That is seen by many today as an antiquated, even backward vision. The free market, democratic system on Taiwan has made the province so rich as to suggest that as an independent state it could wield, in a shining-city-on-an-island kind of way, a power beyond its population of 26 million. We wouldn’t gainsay that dream. But neither would we give up on the idea of a restoration of true democratic rule on the mainland via the Yuan. It is the strategy best calculated to put into relief the weakness of the communist regime and the moral power of the all those living on Taiwan.