Word: ma
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...What changed? First, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou eschewed the breakaway bluster of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian and, amid the global recession, hitched Taiwan's economic future to China's growth engine. In just the 15 months Ma has been in office, Taiwan and China have launched a raft of trade, investment, transport and cultural initiatives and exchanges that are inexorably binding the two together. As much as it will ever trust any Taiwan leader, Beijing sees Ma as a pragmatic politician with whom it can do business. (Read "Building Bridges to China...
...when the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) lifted martial law, the island has gradually become a thriving, if somewhat rambunctious, democracy. Its 23 million people determine its future, not Beijing or London or Lisbon. A sizeable portion of the population - some estimates put it at as high as a third - opposes Ma's overtures to China. It's this constituency that nurtures former President Chen's pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Even those who favor eventual unification with China embrace a strong sense of Taiwan identity. (Read "China and Taiwan Draw Closer, Amid Protests...
...Take the Dalai Lama episode. The opposition DPP invited him to Taiwan in order to put Ma in a spot - he'd be damned by his own people as a mainland lackey if he did not okay the visit and condemned by Beijing if he did. Ma took a gamble: he approved the trip - and bet on China's leaders appreciating his dilemma. They did. Their censure was directed solely at the DPP, with no mention of Ma whatsoever. Far from harming cross-strait relations, the Dalai Lama's visit revealed how mature those relations have become...
...next step, both sides must take a leap of faith. It's great that Beijing and Ma get along, but Ma won't be around forever, perhaps not even for long - he has taken a hit at home over the hurting economy and, more recently, over his government's less-than-stellar Morakot relief efforts. While Beijing has a big stake in Ma's political survival, it should start looking beyond the current President and the KMT and build bridges certainly to moderate DPP politicians. After all, the party could come back to power. As for those in Taiwan...
...very likely prospect. Taiwan's current President Ma Ying-jeou's friendly policy towards China has been a big contrast from Chen, who was often deemed a troublemaker. Since coming to office last May, Ma has forged closer economic ties with China through establishing direct transportation and opening up tourism and investment to the Chinese. But Ma's popularity has suffered a big blow recently from public dissatisfaction with the government's relief efforts after a disastrous typhoon hit the island a month ago. It left over 700 dead and missing and over 7000 homeless. A new premier and Cabinet...