I disagree. The ideal situation would be for the mainland to renounce Communism, become a representative democracy, grant individual freedoms and participate in open trade.
Of course, that won't happen anytime soon.
The ideal situation, that is practical, would be for the mainland to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. De facto independence becomes real independence with a single piece of paper. Both nations would benefit greatly from free trade agreements as well.
While the mainland is no longer Maoist, it is still Communist. It has benefitted greatly by allowing foreign corporations to do business on its soil, but outside of that, manufacturing capital is still under the control of the central government.
Chen was elected by the people of Taiwan with the full knowledge that he supports independence. The Taiwanese want independence. They already have political and economic freedom....they have no desire to relinquish any of that to the mainland.
What is truly reckless is the constant sword rattling by the mainland. The Taiwanese need to make it known that they do not want unification. This is self-defense and I respect them for it.
The United States does not need to defend Taiwan militarily. China is completely dependent on free trade with the United States...and China knows that a simple vote in Congress can do more damage than a whole fleet of US carriers.
Actually, Chen was elected the first time with less than 36% of the votes.
The second time, he won a very narrow margin after an "assassination" attempt 2 days before the election - and no assassins have ever been caught (a lot of people suspect that he did it on himself in the hospital). Put it this way, he was supposedly shot with a bullet (a 22, by the way, no one uses that for assassinations), and instead of being rushed to the best hospital or the closest one, he went to a small hospital loyal to him and the DPP.
He's doing this TI stuff right now to get people off of his corrupt regime - his son in law has already been convicted, now his wife is being investigated for corruption. He's in deep political doo-doo and he knows it.