Handling China will be Taiwan's key election issue

Significance

As president (2008-16), he engineered a cooperative phase of relations with Beijing. Ma, now an influential elder in the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, was in China when President Tsai Ing-wen, who belongs to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was visiting Guatemala, Belize and the United States.

Impacts

• Any attempts by the DPP at diplomacy with Beijing will be rebuffed.
• Outreach to China is easier for the KMT when it is in opposition; it would find it more difficult once in power.
• China wants the KMT to win, and will behave less threateningly if it does.
• A victorious DPP would prioritise building support for Taiwan among democracies, notably the United States, EU members and Japan.