Immediately after his presidential election victory last week, Ma Ying-jeou outlined plans to improve Taiwan's relations with the mainland, aiming ultimately for a peace accord that would end 59 years of hostility across the Taiwan Strait. He wants to move ahead with Beijing on a whole range of economic and security issues, covering direct airline flights, increased tourism, commercial relations and even some sort of confidence-building military arrangements. Mr Ma does not underestimate the difficulties to end the state of hostility. But he seems very optimistic that, with mutual goodwill between Beijing and Taipei, relations can improve quickly and dramatically.
Let us hope so. Peace is the most desired prize for all, and it will be immeasurably good for Hong Kong. The loss of some flights and shipping routing may have an impact on aviation and shipping businesses, but it will have a minimal impact on Hong Kong as a whole. There is no need to present these as major losses.
While Mr Ma is prepared to set an ambitious agenda, he also seems realistic about what can be done during his presidency. He does not think the mainland-Taiwan problem can be settled within his lifetime, and he is only 57. He says he is, therefore, looking to do practical things to move cross-strait relations forward, where possible.
Mr Ma is prepared to go back to the 1992 'one-China principle' with Beijing, which his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, repudiated. The then Kuomintang government endorsed the principle but insisted that both sides interpret it differently. With Beijing not challenging Taipei's position, talks could begin. Let's hope there will be steady improvements in relations.
Beyond economics and security matters, Hong Kong should pay close attention to the evolution of mainland-Taiwan relations because the island is the remaining piece of the reunification jigsaw puzzle. It offers Beijing a chance to embark on a new political path of democratic accommodation through some kind of pan-national, perhaps even federal, system.
Mr Ma is an interesting character to be elected the leader of a Chinese society. In many ways, he personifies much of the Chinese-idealised cultural characteristics of ability and morality, but he also believes in democracy and universal suffrage. The language he uses to talk about political process is different from that used by political leaders in Hong Kong and Macau, where there is partial democracy to elect legislators, but no universal suffrage yet for the head of government.