ESPN.com: China boycotts ceremony in Taiwan

ESPN.com: China boycotts ceremony in Taiwan

The 100-strong Chinese delegation boycotted the opening ceremony of the World Games in Taiwan on Thursday, underscoring the limits of the historic breakthrough in relations between Taipei and Beijing.
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"Ma has been telling Taiwanese that Beijing accepts his claim that Taiwan and China can agree to differ on whether the two sides belong to the same country, but the Chinese delegation's no-show has contradicted that," said Lo, who generally supports the pro-independence opposition. "This will lead people to question the legitimacy of Ma's statements."

But fellow political scientist George Tsai of Taipei's Chinese Culture University -- usually a supporter of the government -- said that China had shown goodwill by allowing Ma to preside over the opening ceremony.

"Beijing could demand the World Games follow Olympic rules and forbid Ma to attend, but it didn't," Tsai said. "This shows Beijing has made concessions."

That's so "generous" of Beijing not to press the World Games to ban the President of Taiwan from attending when it's being held in his own country.  It certainly calls into question President Ma's strategy of being friends with China if China can't even attend the opening ceremony of the World Games.

Taiwan is a de facto independent nation since World War II ended Japanese rule.