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Taiwan's current president, Chen shui-bian, appears to favour a more independent role for Taiwan. He knows that his motion to hold a referendum on membership for Taiwan in the United Nations is bound to fail. His reason for making the motion is to boost support for his party in the presidential election in March and to appease his supporters who favour a formal declaration of independence. He is under no illusion that the United Nations will ever accept membership for Taiwan. In fact, many Taiwanese are happy to preserve the status quo. This means a rejection of a formal declaration of independence but also a rejection of full reunification with China.

Though Chen shui-bian was largely elected on his pledge to create a more independent Taiwan, his popularity has suffered greatly. Facing a number of scandals as well as an economic slow-down, it appears that his party will go down to defeat in the presidential election scheduled for March 22, 2008. The Kuomintang, also known as the KMT, will probably come back to power. If this is the case, relations between China and Taiwan will undoubtedly improve because the KMT believes in preserving the status quo and further negotiation with China. The KMT is also open to the idea of eventual full reunification, possibly under conditions similar to those for Hong Kong.

Much of President Chen shui-bian's support is from the southern part of Taiwan where the population tends to favour independence more than in the north. Many people in the north are originally from the mainland and still maintain close ties. In fact, when Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT government fled China for Taiwan, they settled in Taipei, a city in the north.

An interesting linguistic divide exists in Taiwan today. Though the official language is Mandarin, the same as in China, many Taiwanese also speak Taiwanese, a language also known as Min or Fukienese. Many of the Taiwanese who speak Taiwanese are originally from Fujian Province in China or are the descendants of people from that province. However, when Chiang Kai-shek and his followers made Taiwan their home, Mandarin became the official language. As a result, some tension exists between the native Taiwanese and those who arrived from the mainland.

President Chen shui-bian considers himself an ethnic Taiwanese who has clearly distanced himself from Chiang Kai-shek. For example, Taipei's National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was recently named National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall despite opposition

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