HONOLULU -- Chairman Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan's Nationalist Party, better known as the Kuomintang (KMT) did a marathon swing through the United States in March to deliver several pertinent messages:
* Having become increasingly engaged in the most dangerous confrontation in East Asia, that between Taiwan and China, Ma sought to assure U.S. leaders that his party wanted Taiwan to be "a peacemaker, not a troublemaker." Senior U.S. officials consider that incumbent President Chen Shui-bian has unnecessarily provoked Beijing.
* If the KMT wins the presidency in 2008, Ma said it would reverse the course toward formal independence set by Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party. But Ma said the KMT would not seek unification with the mainland, which claims Taiwan. "The best policy for Taiwan to pursue," Ma asserted, "is to maintain the status quo."