Word: maing
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...major face of Taiwan's new politics. The other is his political associate Ma Ying-jeou, the big winner of the March 22 presidential election. Ma's victory is a landmark development that has the potential to not just change Taiwan but transform its fraught relationship with China. For decades after its leadership fled to Taiwan in 1949, the KMT regarded the island merely as a transitional base from which to reclaim the mainland. The KMT, an outsider, ruled Taiwan in an authoritarian manner, and was out of touch with local folk, who identified themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese...
...rather than command, their respect. The core policy of reunification with the mainland under the KMT, always a far-fetched idea, was put on the backburner. And old-guard mainlanders, who had run the party for so long, realized they had to give way to younger leaders such as Ma (who was born in Hong Kong and went to Taiwan when he was just 1) if the KMT were ever to regain power...
...time I met Ma, it was clear he understood that Taiwan was punching below its weight and that it had to liberate its over-regulated economy to compete in a globalized world. He also recognized that Taiwan needed to acknowledge China's might. Now that he is President, Ma wants to launch direct transport links with the mainland, lift restrictions on Taiwan businesses operating in China and open the island to Chinese tourists and investors. As he told my colleague Michael Schuman: "We can make cross-strait relations work for both - a win-win situation...
...approach that benefits the entire region. Well-educated and well-spoken, Ma excites the Chinese diaspora in a way not even China's best and brightest do. On election night, I was watching the results with my wife on a Taipei cable channel in our Hong Kong home when the doorbell rang. It was our neighbors, a Taiwan family - husband, wife and their two children; they didn't have Taiwan TV and wished to follow the election on ours. As Ma pulled away from his opponent Frank Hsieh, the voice of the anchorwoman was drowned out by their cheers...
...question, however, is: Will Beijing play ball with Ma? China does seem to be in an unusually cooperative mood. In early March, China's President Hu Jintao reiterated Beijing's willingness to negotiate a peace treaty with Taiwan. Yet Ma's likely willingness to offer concessions to Beijing will force Hu to make tough decisions regarding China's stand toward Taiwan, which he has so far been able to avoid, and it remains unclear to what extent he is open to cooperating with Taipei...