HONOLULU -- Winston Churchill once said "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried." Recent elections in South Korea and Taiwan have already demonstrated that irony. This year contains a number of presidential and parliamentary elections that promise to change the political face of Asia.
Taiwan: a too-close shave. The March 20 Taiwan election looked more like an Oliver Stone movie, complete with an assassination attempt, an unusually high number of invalid ballots and a margin of victory of less than one-quarter of 1 percent, prompting calls for a recount, scheduled for May 10. Odds are high that the end result will be the same: President Chen Shui-bian is expected to begin a second four-year term on May 20.
While Chen's margin of victory was minuscule, the campaign still sent a strong message to Beijing. The (falsely labeled) "pro-China" candidate, Lien Chen, took great pains to distance himself from Beijing's "one China" concept, even playing down his own earlier "one China, different interpretations" formulation. Taiwanese "identity" issues are a growing phenomenon that Beijing must recognize and deal with effectively if there is to be any future progress in cross-Strait relations.