Word: straits
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
...rival, China. The two separated in 1949 after Mao Zedong's Communists were victorious in a civil war with the KMT, which fled to the island of Taiwan and set up its own government. Beijing and Taipei have engaged in a military standoff ever since and the heavily armed strait that separates them remains one of Asia's hottest potential flashpoints. China still sees Taiwan as a runaway province and claims sovereignty over the island to this...
...with China by launching direct transportation links, lifting restrictions on Taiwan businessmen operating in China and opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists and investors. Ma, a Harvard-trained lawyer, also broaches the idea of setting in place "confidence-building measures" to scale back the military build-up along the Taiwan Strait. "The more we open ourselves up," Ma recently told TIME, "the more we interact with the mainland, the chances of war will be less...
...Even if Ma overcomes Hsieh and wins the presidency, he could face serious hurdles in realizing his vision of improved cross-strait relations. Much of his success will depend on the attitude of Beijing. On the surface, the interests of Ma and Hu Jintao appear to be dovetailing. Under Hu, whom Ma compliments as "sophisticated," China has dramatically softened its stance toward Taipei, and Hu these days sounds ready to compromise. In his speech opening the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress in early March, Hu reiterated his offer to sign a peace treaty. "Status in negotiations would be equal...
...believes Taiwan can have it all. "We could accomplish a lot of things across the Taiwan Strait without damaging Taiwanese interests, Taiwanese dignity or Taiwanese security," he says. If he's right, the political map of Asia would be changed forever...