Given the party leadership’s preoccupation with the pro-independence disturbances in the west, the election results to the east will be a relief of sorts.
Taiwan’s voters elected the Harvard-educated Ma Ying-jeou, the opposition Kuomintang party candidate who favors closer commercial and political ties with China, as president to succeed the strongly pro-independence Chen Shui-ban. Two referendums calling for the government to work for the island’s entry into the U.N. also failed.
Thanks to its sweeping victory in parliamentary elections in January, the Kuomintang also controls two thirds of the seats in the legislature. None of that will necessarily mean that Ma will drive many or even any rapid changes in the relationship between Beijing and Taipei, which Beijing still considers to be a renegade province — and certainly not while Beijing has unfinished business in the far west.
China Bystander 
This recent election really shows that Taiwan’s democracy is matured, with the second round of regime change.
Chinese have always claim that Chinese people are not ready for democracy. This even is all the proof we need Taiwan people are not Chinese, they are not only ready for democracy, they built a mature system of democracy. This difference is probably genetic.
Miscel: I don’t think you realize that 98% of Taiwan’s population is ethnically Han Chinese. Therefore your comments about genetic differences as a factor in what the politically system is faulty.