Domestic factors such as the smear campaigns(抹黑戰) and a "saliva war" (口水戰, war of words) between each camp will still dominate most newspaper front pages until election day.
In this sense, the real lesson each candidate should learn from Beijing's release of the Taiwan policy is the extent to which the next Taiwan president can map out a more realistic and attainable cross-strait policy.
Perhaps they will have something new to talk about in the yet-to-be arranged candidates' debates.
Liu Shih-chung is deputy director of the DPP's department of international affairs.
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