Yet in a wider context Chen's victory will simplify things for Taiwan -- which is not to say that it will remove the risk that a belligerent China always poses. Things will be simpler in that there will no longer be any confusion about what Taiwan is and what its goals might be. Chen does not have to declare independence or assert the "two states" principle to distance himself from the flabby old KMT rhetoric of reunification. Chen is a Taiwanese, China is to him a foreign country. There is no reason whatsoever why he should seek reunification or anybody might expect him to. Chen's living presence in the presidential office signals the death of the old Chinese nationalist -- or should it be Nationalist -- fictions that have dominated this country and discussion of its fate for too long.
Taiwan is to see more than a transition of political power; it is to see a paradigm shift in its view of itself and others' view of it. That this will be executed very cautiously, with much going unsaid or left open for interpretation, does not mean that it will not happen or that its effects will not be great. For those who want to see Taiwan emerge from the shadow of its colonial past to become a sovereign nation state and be respected as such in the world, yesterday might also be described in the words of Winston Churchill: "This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end; it may, however, be the end of the beginning."
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