Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s outgoing president, made history late last year by meeting China’s President Xi Jinping, the first such summit in history.
But the island has begun 2016 by going in a very different direction. Opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen’s triumph in this month’s presidential election confronts China with a less congenial neighbour — and marks a generational shift in Taiwan that could spell wider problems for Beijing.
Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive party focused on the youth vote as it capitalised on a growing sense of Taiwanese, as opposed to Chinese, identity. Her victory was a clear rejection of the ruling Kuomintang’s policy of closer economic ties with China.