The Taiwan Strait continues to shrink. Last week, China and Taiwan agreed on regular nonstop charter flights between the two sides of the strait, a move that would boost tourism, help the sputtering Taiwanese economy, and provide the impetus for even more ambitious links between them. This progress is welcome and long overdue; the chief challenge now is ensuring that the Taiwanese public backs the improvement of ties. While they support steps that improve the economy and lessen tensions between the two governments, they also fear that their government might be willing to put ties with Beijing above their own sovereignty. If they dig in their heels, tensions could again prevail and the cross-strait relationship might again deteriorate.
The charter flight deal had been in the works for some time. Currently, those flights are only available on four special holidays, and both governments had hoped to make them regular. But as Beijing considered former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian a "splittist" and independence activist, it was not prepared to conclude a deal that Chen could claim as an accomplishment for his administration.
The election victory of Nationalist candidate Ma Ying-jeou in the March presidential ballot made an agreement possible. Mr. Ma favors a less antagonistic relationship with Beijing and wants to subordinate identity and independence issues to more pragmatic concerns: getting the economy back on track.