Taiwan has successful election with KMT winning, so what does that mean?

The Taiwanese election is over, with incumbent President Ma of the KMT (Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek's old party) winning re-election. I don't know enough about internal politics in Taiwan to comment too much but for relations with China it signals the status quo. The KMT agreed in 1992 with Beijing that indeed there was only one China, but that which was the "real" China remains undefined. This is good for peace and stability in the region and of course for the Taiwanese, who continue to be among the wealthiest and most interesting people in Asia. I'm not sure what else is all that remarkable about this election other than the fact that Taiwan only had real election in 1996 following decades of KMT rule, which was often brutal and violent. Yet today you see very little evidence of that history, as Taipei is a modern world city on par with some of the top cities in Asia like Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Singapore.

Personally, I fell in love with Taiwan within hours of arriving in Taipei and I really hope to go back soon. It's a beautiful place with some of the most lovely people you could imagine. Taipei is an amazing city with a great vibe and the natural beauty of the rest of the island is also stunning and amazingly pristine for such a highly populated area. I'm happy to see the island prosper and hope it continues for years to come. As to independence, I'm a believer that if a group of people want to make their own country and freely choose to do so they should be allowed to. I support Quebec's right to cede from Canada (heck I encourage it), I love the Republic of Oregon or Cascadia idea that kicked around a few years ago where BC, Washington, Oregon and Idaho would become their own country (and I'd vote for it if it came up), I support every suburb in the Balkans becoming it's own republic if that's what they want and I support Taiwan's right to be independent if they wish it (though I'd suggest that they drop the "Republic of China" and just make the country Taiwan). Of course I don't expect Beijing to take my opinion in to account, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

So for the present check out Taiwan if you haven't already, it's a really cool little island.