The people of Taiwan put a damper on "mainland fever" last weekend. In elections to create a special assembly that would amend the island's constitution, President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a plurality of votes. The results are more an endorsement of the status quo, though, than a mandate for Mr. Chen. More significantly, it is a signal to Beijing that its attempt to outflank the president and court opposition politicians has not won the hearts and minds of Taiwanese. Cross-strait relations remain stuck, as neither the government in Taipei nor the one in Beijing seem prepared to take steps to meet the other halfway.
Constitutional amendments are aimed at modernizing Taiwan's political system, such as cutting the size of the legislature in half, changing election rules, extending terms of legislators and requiring the use of referendums to approve all future changes to the constitution. Since the amendments passed the legislature with backing from both the DPP and the main opposition party, the KMT, passage in the special assembly is a given.
The DPP won 42.5 percent of the vote; the KMT took 38.9. The margin may not have been large, but it was significant. The KMT had won a majority in parliamentary elections held in December. More significantly, the ballot came on the heels of a historic trip to the mainland by KMT Chairman Lien Chan, which boosted his popularity to record levels. Mr. Lien's meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao -- which Mr. Hu attended in his capacity of secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party -- were intended to signal to the Taiwanese people that the mainland could deal with the KMT even though relations with President Chen remain frozen.