Is it a “new, gentle area” for China and Taiwan?

“Though the Communist Party in Beijing is still standing firm on its ‘One China’ policy, it has stopped provoking Taiwan with military maneuvers. Taiwan has also suspended its demonstrations for independence and seems satisfied with the status quo. China and Taiwan are both counting on their people, on winning their hearts and minds. Who knows, say the Taiwanese, perhaps people on the mainland will soon start wondering why the people of Taiwan are allowed to elect their government, while they are not?

‘Beijing has realized that Taiwan will continue to drift away if China doesn’t establish contact,’ says Lin Chong-pin, President of the Institute for International Studies. After nearly 60 years of separation, a generation has grown up in Taiwan seeing the People’s Republic of China as a foreign country. Beijing now wants to draw the 23 million Taiwanese closer to the “motherland.” The time is ripe, too: New Taiwanese President Ma Yingjeou got elected partly on a platform of wanting to improve relations with China, thus breaking with the policy course of his political predecessor. The main hope is that improved ties will translate into benefits for Taiwan’s economy.”