NANJING, China (AP) — Representatives of China and Taiwan met Tuesday in Nanjing for their highest-level talks since their split in 1949, a landmark step despite Beijing’s refusal to recognize the self-governing island’s sovereignty.

The choice of Nanjing as the venue has special resonance because it was the capital of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government during the war against Mao Zedong’s Communists before the Nationalists were forced 65 years ago to flee the mainland for Taiwan. It also is the location of the tomb of the founder of republican China, Sun Yat-sen, who is revered in both Beijing and Taipei.