Taiwan's elections on January 14, which for the first time combined polls for the presidency and the legislature, displayed further positive evolution in Taiwan's now well-established democracy. The results also precluded an immediate disruption in relations between Taiwan and the PRC, which is good news in Washington. Denny Roy, Senior Fellow at the East-West Center, discusses the recent Taiwan elections, saying, "the essential question for Taiwan is how to retain its political autonomy when it is economically integrating with a China that has huge and growing relative economic and military power; when China's government remains committed to forcible unification as a matter of regime survival; and when the staying power of the American protectorate is in doubt."

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