"Politically, the new president and the vice president of Taiwan have very strong feelings about China Airlines, " says Eckes.
The winner was Lien Chan, a former vice-president of Taiwan, much liked by the Chinese government for his conciliatory approach.
To do that, they will have to fend off top international rivals that have set their sights on China's huge agriculture market, including Charoen Pokphand, Miwon of South Korea and President Enterprises of Taiwan.
Chen Yunlin, president of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, leads a delegation of 60 for talks this week with his counterpart, Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation.
For President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan, the outcome will be little surprise and no great blow.
ECONOMIST: America balances old commitments with new priorities
This time China is angry with the United States for allowing President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan to meet senior American politicians in New York and Houston on his way to and from a visit to Latin America.
Among them: Lee Yuan-tseh, the president of the Academia Sinica and a Nobel prize laureate in chemistry, Chang Yung-fa, the chairman of Taiwan's powerful Evergreen Shipping Group, Nita Ing, the chairman of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp.
CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek | From Our Correspondent | Lee Teng-hui
On Jan. 30, in my "Seven Point Position on Relations with China, " we indicated that if the DPP became the ruling party of Taiwan, we would not propose to put President Lee Teng-hui's description of "special state-to-state relations" into the Constitution.
But it does convey how much China's view of Taiwan has changed since Ma Ying-jeou became president last May.
All this as China was still smarting from the spy-plane incident in April, as well as President Bush's decision to allow the biggest sale of arms to Taiwan in nearly a decade and press ahead with a missile-defence system that the Chinese say could destroy international arms-control efforts.
Taiwan is also being hurt by the low popularity of President Ma Ying-jeou.
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Quite the opposite, those who support President Ma do so because they think it is the best way of ensuring Taiwan keeps its freedoms.
On the eve of Mr Chen's speech, President Jacques Chirac of France said during a visit to Beijing that tensions in the Taiwan strait were worsening.
On one side there is Vincent Siew, the new prime minister, Mr Lien (currently vice-president), many senior cabinet members and most of the media, who think that Taiwan's business interests in China are now so large that there are compelling reasons to talk.
But studies in Taiwan and British Columbia (the latter by Julio Montaner, the incoming president of the International AIDS Society, which organises the conference) have shown big falls in transmission rates as ARVs have been rolled out.
In Taiwan, most of the items are sold through 63.7%-owned President Chain Store Corp.
When President Bush came to power in 2001, his administration had an announced policy to improve the defensive posture of Taiwan.
If, for example, those from Taiwan could achieve a negotiation to allow what exists now to remain, while recognizing the reality of President Clinton's remarks in Shanghai, would that not be approaching a reasonable arrangement?
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