Effort to ease tensions between Mainland and Taiwan.

On Tuesday, December 21, Mainland China and Taiwan signed an agreement that allowed them to come together in developing new drugs. When President Ma, of Taiwan, became president, he promised to improve relations and ease the tension between Mainland and Taiwan. This new agreement that was just signed is the 15^th agreement between Mainland and Taiwan since Ma’s presidency.

Signing this new agreement will allow Taiwan to enter into a bigger market instead of being restricted and limited in its small market on the island. When Taiwan split from Mainland China, there has always been a lot of tension but with these new agreements, 15 to be exact, Taiwan and China’s relationship has gotten better than ever.

Along with cooperating in the biotechnology field in creating new drugs, Taiwan and China has also agreed to let more people enter Taiwan per day. It used to be only 3,000 people can enter but now they are increasing it to 4000 people per day, which in my opinion isn’t that big of a different compared to China’s large population.

President Ma hopes to help Taiwan’s slow economy by engaging with China. Even though Taiwan’s economy may improve, many people might seek this as an opportunity to move to China and start a business there. It may cause the unemployment rate in Taiwan to increase which is bad. Being Taiwanese myself, I think it’s good to engage in activities with China to ease tension because there has always been some tension between Taiwanese and Chinese people but it is also a bad idea because with Taiwan getting closer and closer to China, Taiwan may lose some of its democratic values.

After this decision was made, some people started protesting that President Ma was selling Taiwan to China, which is partially true with all these agreements bringing Taiwan and China closer.