Beijing's treatment of Hong Kong protests watched by a wary region
Manik Mehta says any violence will further unnerve Taiwan and wider Asia
The demand for democracy in Hong Kong, manifesting itself in the Occupy Central movement, is being closely watched by Taiwan and other Asian governments.
One worrying question is whether Beijing would ask the Hong Kong authorities to use force to crush the protests; such a move would send the wrong signal to Taiwan, which China wants to see returned to the fold of the "motherland".
Analysts in Taiwan fear that their president, Ma Ying-jeou, in his zeal for greater trade and economic benefits, is taking the island into the arms of the mainland, fostering Taiwan's economic integration with the mainland and, unwittingly, bringing it closer to a political merger.
This fear drove the so-called Sunflower Movement mass protests in Taipei against Taiwan's economic dependence on China, and against the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services which, although signed last year, has not yet been ratified by Taiwan.
Taiwanese concerns over the growing dependency on mainland China also surfaced during the recent visit of a three-member Taiwanese delegation to New York, where it underlined the island republic's interest in joining the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Mainland China absorbs some 40 per cent of Taiwan's total exports; two-way trade between Taiwan and mainland China is presently around US$160 billion, with Taiwan scoring a huge trade surplus with the mainland. Dependence on China makes Taiwan politically vulnerable to Beijing's attempts to force the pace of "reunification" on its terms.
That is also the reason behind Taiwan's interest in diversifying its economic and trading ties, notably with the United States, which is the island's most important investor.
