ABSTRACT
This chapter takes stock of cross-Strait economic integration during the Ma Ying-jiu era and provides a critical assessment of the promise made by President Ma that deepening cross-Strait relations, most notably by establishing a number of important trade agreements, would be most helpful to Taiwan’s economy and to Taiwan’s incorporation in the process of East Asian economic integration. However, a thorough examination of trade and investment figures showed that the ECFA signed in mid-2010 had only a minimal positive effect, at best, on the Taiwanese economy. The agreement did little, if anything at all, to stop the decline in domestic and foreign investment, and did not help Taiwan to gain better access to free trade regimes in the region. Moreover, the Taiwanese public had developed a sceptical, if not outright negative, attitude toward the China policies of the Ma administration and the promise that these policies would benefit the economic well-being of the people while helping Taiwan to manage the ‘China threat’.
