Cross-strait economic framework agreement signed

What happened

Taiwan and the PRC sign the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement under the Ma Ying-jeou administration, formalising tariff reductions and a broader liberalisation of cross-strait trade after two decades of deep de facto economic integration.

ECFA is the high-water mark of the engagement theory: that economic integration would produce political convergence. It did not — identity and political preferences continued moving the other way — and the framework has since become a source of leverage, with Beijing suspending tariff concessions in response to political events.

Confidence: High