On a mountaintop north of its capital, Taiwan has begun a new and perilous experiment - the construction of the island's first residential skyscraper aimed at investors from the mainland. Even before the ground is broken, 20 units have been sold.
Mainland money and people have poured into property markets around the world - from Hong Kong to Honolulu, from Toronto to St Tropez - in a trend that accelerated when the financial crisis of 2008 brought down prices in developed countries. But Taiwan has remained the great exception. The island has made its rules so restrictive that mainland investment, in property and other sectors, is minimal and no mainlander can live here legally unless they are married to a Taiwanese.
'If mainlanders buy property here, they are not allowed to live in Taiwan,' says James Chu Shi, director-general of the Hong Kong and Macau Department of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council. 'If they are working in a mainland firm, we will give them a one-year visa. Mainland students must leave after they graduate and tourists return after they finish their visit.
'Taiwan is a small country and our land is a very precious asset. Our policy is not to encourage mainlanders to buy property for speculative purposes,' he says.
This is the great paradox of Taiwan. Since he took power in May 2008, President Ma Ying-jeou has improved cross-strait relations in a way no other leader has done, opening direct air, sea and postal links and signing 15 economic and trade agreements. It has led to the biggest flood of mainlanders onto the island since 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek brought 1.3 million civilian and military followers with him. Since mass tourism between the two began in July 2008, more than 3.5 million mainlanders have visited Taiwan.
The two economies are integrated as never before, with China (including Macau and Hong Kong) accounting for 40 per cent of Taiwan's exports and most of its trade surplus. The mainland is home to US$200 billion in Taiwanese investment, employing 14 million workers. About two million Taiwan people, 9 per cent of the island's population, live on a long-term basis in the mainland.
However, the people and government of Taiwan are not as welcoming. They see mainlanders as the Trojan horse of the 'peaceful unification' President Hu Jintao spoke about in his speech in Beijing on October 9, on the 100th anniversary of China's 1911 revolution.