By Barclay Bram Shoemaker
The outcome of the protests in one give the other a glimpse of what life might be like should it return to the mainland.
The Hong Kong protests are waning. Last week prominent leaders of the movement Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, who founded the Occupy Central group that provided the catalyst for the protests, handed themselves into police. There were released without charge. Now, police are dismantling camps and making dozens of arrests.
As the protests come to an end and a new day dawns on Hong Kong, it would be easy to say that they have achieved little, aside from bringing the city to a halt and frustrating Beijing in the process.
In fact the ramifications of these protests extend beyond Hong Kong, across the water in Taiwan. On November 29, the ruling Kuomingtang (KMT) party was thoroughly trounced in local elections, losing even Taipei, usually a guaranteed victory. The drubbing has led president Ma Ying-Jeou to disband his entire cabinet, pending a major reshuffle.
The KMT has long been credited with dramatically improving relations with the mainland. Previously one of the world’s most fragile geopolitical trip-wires, the last decade has been surprisingly peaceful. That the eyes of the world have been glued to a different set of disputed islands is testament to how stable relations between Beijing and Taiwan have been.
Read the full story at The Diplomat