The music was courtesy of Beethoven--the "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony--and the rhetoric had a Kennedyesque ring as Lee Teng-hui was inaugurated as the first popularly elected President in Chinese history. Before 20,000 people at the Taoyuan sports complex south of Taipei, Lee said: "We will never negotiate under threat of attack. But we do not fear to negotiate." That led Lee to the paramount topic of the morning: how to assuage the leaders of mainland China without abandoning the ambitions of his island state's 21 million residents. In words awaited anxiously in Taiwan, on the mainland and in the U.S., the President proposed to visit Beijing in a "journey of peace." In the 47 years since Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces fled the mainland to establish modern Taiwan, none of its chief executives had ever offered to visit the communist rivals.

There are obstacles to that plan: Beijing would first have to issue Lee an invitation, which is far from certain, and Taiwan would have to loosen its rules restricting government officials from touching mainland soil. Some analysts found Lee's speech disappointingly short on other explicit steps to repair cross-strait relations, and Beijing officials said they didn't see much new in it either. But that was just fine in Washington, where hopes were high that Lee would say nothing to offend a China still angry over his 1995 visit to the U.S. A day after the speech, China's Taiwan Affairs Office observed mildly, "We support the demand of the people of Taiwan to develop a democratic government," although it also warned against any move toward independence for the island. Notably absent was the hostile tone of only two months ago, when Beijing announced that Lee deserved to be "relegated to the dustbin of history." China seems to have accepted the improbability of that verdict, and last week's inaugural was a celebration of both Lee's democratic triumph and the apparent end of China's 10-month experiment in intimidation, a campaign that included firing missiles into the waters near what it considers a renegade province. Lee's job now is to improve relations tangibly, and some of his countrymen think he'll have to come up with gestures beyond a trip to Beijing.

A visit with President Jiang Zemin would certainly be a remarkable step. "If Lee and Jiang can just shake hands, talk, play a round of golf together or even play Go," speculates Bertrand Tsai, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, "it would open the way for negotiations to get started on a whole range of issues." Taiwan had previously insisted that any such summit take place at a neutral site, within an international forum, so Lee would not appear to be paying a vassal's homage to the Emperor. Now it may be China's turn to reject a Beijing face-to-face in fear that Lee might win too much respect. Officially, China says he can visit the mainland only as the leader of the Kuomintang, not as Taiwan's President.

Even if the summit is a nonstarter, Lee is planning a conference in Taipei this summer of prominent citizens, academics and politicians from all parties to build a consensus on relations with China. It isn't clear whether the President will seek approval for a step-by-step plan or merely the group's moral support for ideas he develops in the future. Some are convinced Lee wants major progress with China during his four-year term to solidify his place in history. "Lee Teng-hui is very ambitious, and he is a first-class strategist who should never be underestimated," says Bernard Joei, a retired Taiwan diplomat. "He will aim to use democratization as a tool to unify China." The ever surprising Lee may just be getting started.

--Reported by Donald Shapiro/Taipei and Mia Turner/Beijing