EVER since he was elected president in 2008, Ma Ying-jeou has sought to improve Taiwan’s long-rocky relations with China. On November 7th in Singapore the world will see the culmination of these efforts, when the Taiwanese leader will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The news is an utter surprise. It will be the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders since the Communists’ victory in the civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Kuomintang (KMT) forces fled to the island fortress across the Taiwan Strait.
No agreements will be signed in Singapore, nor any joint statement issued. Mr Ma’s office says that the meeting will “consolidate cross-strait peace and maintain the status quo.” That reassurance is necessary. Especially during Mr Ma’s second term as president, many Taiwanese grew increasingly unhappy over a flurry of agreements with China, 23 in all, promoting greater economic integration across the strait. Last year hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, in anti-trade protests led by students who also occupied the legislature. Their concerns were not only about jobs, but...Continue reading
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