ABSTRACT
Taiwan’s power turnover from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
back to the Nationalist Party (KMT) in 2008 provided the momentum for Bei-
jing’s evolving Taiwan policy, featuring comprehensive engagement with
Taiwan, more significantly in economic, cultural, and societal spheres than in
political and diplomatic arenas. Underneath this policy evolution is Beijing’s
strategic calculations of the opportunities and challenges it faces, both domesti-
cally and internationally. In the words of Zheng Bijian – former executive presi-
dent of the Central Party School – peace, harmony, and conciliation (the
so-called sanhe) are three key elements defining, respectively, China’s foreign relations, domestic development, and cross-Taiwan Strait affairs (duiwai qiu heping, duinei qiu hexie, liangan qiu hejie).1 While peaceful development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations has become an official watchword since 2004, it is
more visible only after the KMT came back to power.
