China’s new president?

We have a new president in Taiwan.  At 9 this morning Ma Yingjiu was inaugurated.  Yes, he spoke a lot about improving relations with the mainland, about agreeing to disagree with Beijing, and about demilitarizing the whole cross-straights issue.  And — this is great news — there will be direct flights to the mainland as early as in July!

A thought struck me: I wonder if this man one day will be president of all of China.  Surely, the day when there are competitive elections on the mainland, the KMT will do pretty well.  They have name recognition after all, and mainlanders are reportedly pretty excited about Ma.  Still, the guy is 57.  Real democracy in China might take another 20 years …