Taiwan's thaw with China turning to slush

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-taiwan-economy-20140405,0,3949418.story



Initial high hopes for ties with China have led to disenchantment, fueling student protests, a stagnating economy and criticism of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.

Taiwan's thaw with China turning to slush
By Don Lee
April 4, 2014, 5:08 p.m.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — For decades, relations between Taiwan and its giant neighbor China have been one of the great success stories of the ending of the Cold War. Slowly but surely, the two nations have pulled back from half a century of bellicose confrontation and in recent years embraced a level of political and economic cooperation that seemed to promise new riches for both.

But today, for many Taiwanese, the bloom is off the rose. This disenchantment lay behind the outbreak of angry protests from Taiwanese students that are in their third week. And Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is scrambling to placate a restive electorate.

Hundreds of students stormed Taiwan's legislature March 18 and have occupied it since, draping signs denouncing a free-trade pact with Beijing and posting caricatures of Ma around a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China, the official name of Taiwan. Others have tried to break into the cental government headquarters, clashing with police who repelled them with water cannons and batons.

No one questions the benefits of lifting the half-century long threat of military conflict. And almost everyone acknowledges that there are advantages to Ma's policy of stepped-up cooperation. Today, 118 airline flights a day link Taiwan and 54 cities in China, many packed with Taiwanese businesspeople going one way and mainland tourists going the other. Seven years ago, there were no such flights.