KMT victory brings Taiwan back into Greater China fold

Having spent several days in Taiwan during the election, I find the two articles by Tsang Yok-sing and Frank Ching ('It's party time', and 'A clean slate', March 26) highly interesting, and would like to offer several comments.

Tsang is spot-on in asserting that an important lesson for Hong Kong has to do with strengthening our local political parties in preparation for universal suffrage in the coming years.

I read recently in the media that the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong has in mind expanding its membership from the present reported 13,000 to between 50,000 and 100,000.

The other local political parties should also be thinking ahead along similar lines.

It takes time to train and acquire experienced top-level political and administrative talent, and therefore the government's plan to spend about HK$50 million towards this end should be supported by the community, and also be monitored by the political parties.

Ching's call for renewed rapprochement between the mainland and Taiwan is timely for the reason that the Kuomintang under the new leadership of Ma Ying-jeou will have the unparalleled opportunity to link up Taiwan as one of the original four Asian economic 'tigers' to become a significant sector within the Greater China economic region.