MCLC: Ma Ying-jeou re-elected

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Ma Ying-jeou re-elected
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (1/14/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/asia/taiwan-presidential-election.h
tml

Incumbent Ma Re-Elected as Taiwan¹s President
By ANDREW JACOBS 

TAIPEI, Taiwan ‹ President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected by a comfortable
margin on Saturday, fending off a fierce challenge from his main rival,
Tsai Ing-wen, who criticized his handling of the economy but also sought
to exploit fears among voters that his conciliatory approach toward China
was eroding the island¹s sovereignty.

A second term for Mr. Ma is likely to please Beijing, which has matched
his enthusiasm for cross-strait rapprochement with a variety of economic
and trade pacts. During his tenure Taiwanese exports and investment on the
mainland have soared; at home, the local economy has been buoyed by more
than 3 million mainland tourists who began arriving shortly after his
inauguration.

Those policies, and the wealth that flowed to exporters, helped solidify
his support among business leaders and investors. More than 200,000
citizens who live and work in China returned home to vote, most of them
taking the direct flights that Mr. Ma helped establish during his first
year in office. Not surprisingly, many of the returnees were Ma supporters
spurred by surveys that had showed him in a neck-and-neck bid for survival.

With more than 80 percent of the vote counted, The Associated Press
reported that Mr. Ma, 61, of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang,
was leading Ms. Tsai, 55 of the Democratic Progressive Party, by about six
percentage points. A third candidate, James Soong of the People First
Party, who was expected to siphon off as much a tenth of the electorate
from Mr. Ma, only received 2.8 percent of the vote, the AP reported.

It was the fifth presidential contest since Taiwan emerged from
single-party rule in 1996.

Beijing had no immediate comment on Mr. Ma¹s victory but Communist Party
officials in recent months had made no secret of their antipathy toward
Ms. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party, which has long championed
political independence. Although Ms. Tsai had moderated her party¹s stance
in recent months, many voters recalled the eight years of President Chen
Shui-bian of Democratic Progressive Party whose antagonism toward China
soured relations. ³What this election showed is that business interests in
Taiwan now trump ideology ones,² said Edward I-hsin Chen, a political
scientists at Tamkang University in Taipei. ³There is no turning back on
relations with China.²

Taiwan and China have been in a formal state of war since 1949, when the
Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war and fled the mainland,
establishing their rival Republic of China government in Taipei. In the
ensuing decades, China has not budged on its overriding goal: to bring
Taiwan back into the fold, even if it requires force.

Except for the eight years of Mr. Chen¹s presidency, the Nationalists have
governed the island, including four decades of martial law.

Since Mr. Ma¹s election, China¹s senior leaders have expended a great deal
of political and economic capital trying to woo the island¹s skeptical
citizenry. The relatively close margin, however, highlights the deep
divisions among an electorate still wary of China¹s intentions.

Dealing with China may prove far more complicated during Mr. Ma¹s second
term, analysts say, because after the low-hanging fruits of trade and
transportation pacts, Beijing may seek to tackle thorny political issues.
³I think it¹s clear that much of what has been accomplished has been a set
of easy issues,² said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ³The upcoming agenda
could include much tougher issues.²

The economic benefits from Mr. Ma¹s first term have been pronounced. A
landmark trade agreement between the two sides removed tariffs on hundreds
of products, helping to boost Taiwan¹s exports to China to $115 billion
last year, a 35 percent from 2009. Spending by mainland tourists has
pumped $3 billion into the local economy. Late fall, the first 1,000
mainland students began enrolling in local universities.

Much of the day-to-day campaign, however, focused on retail politics, with
Ms. Tsai mining popular anxiety over the island¹s slide from the heady
1990s, when reliably double-digit economic growth from high-tech
manufacturing helped earn Taiwan a place among the so-called Asian Tigers.

High expectations among Taiwan¹s people partly explain widespread
dissatisfaction that persists despite an unemployment rate of 4.28
percent. Many here blame Mr. Ma for stagnant wages and a growing wealth
gap that has made housing unaffordable for millions of middle-class
Taiwanese.

But a plurality of voters appeared to side with Mr. Ma¹s contention that
improved relations with China were the island¹s best hope for prosperity.
Although she has no interest in unification, Chao Pei-nan, a housewife,
55, said there was nothing to be gained by alienating China. ³Isolation
will do us no good,² said Ms. Chao, who returned here from New Zealand
last week to vote. ³In fact, the closer we get to China, the more they
will see the benefits of democracy and freedom and the better the chance
we have to influence them.²