Ma's perfect pitch（= absolute pitch完全音高感、音高辨别力） for better cross-strait ties

Every new president enjoys a political honeymoon. Ma Ying-jeou's began early. The Taiwanese president's status and prestige（声望；威望；威信） as a leader of a democracy were enhanced by his election in March, the first time a Chinese society completed a second peaceful turnover of power. More significantly, he won the election by a landslide, having fought on a platform of being more conciliatory towards Beijing.

Positive signals did not take long to come from Beijing. A few weeks after his victory, Mr Ma's vice-president-elect and President Hu Jintao met on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in Hainan , the highest-level encounter between the two sides since 1949. Later Mr Hu used 16 Chinese characters to encapsulate（压缩, 节略） his views that the mainland and Taiwan should try to build mutual trust by shelving controversies and finding common ground.

No wonder that the real interest in Mr Ma's inauguration address yesterday was what it meant for a thaw in cross-strait ties. After eight years under his pro-independence predecessor Chen Shui-bian, during which time Taiwan's economy dipped（使限入经济困难, 使欠债）, the Taiwanese people are looking forward to the economic benefits of a warmer relationship. Last week's earthquake in Sichuan has sparked a wave of sympathy and goodwill towards the mainland. Political and public sentiment were therefore receptive（对建议、看法）愿接受的、易接受的.

Mr Ma's speech was politically astute（机敏的；精明的）. It pressed the right buttons on better cross-strait relations. He was even bold enough to say that President Hu's 16-character saying was close to Taiwanese thinking. He proposes the resumption of negotiations with Beijing, abandoned in 2000, on the basis of the 1992 "consensus" that put aside questions of unification and independence and repudiated the use of force.

But with his appointment of a former political opponent with deep ties with the pro-independence camp as the head of a government agency responsible for dealing with the mainland, Mr Ma also sent a clear message that Taiwan's interests must come first. He is rightly mindful（注意....的, 留心...的） that there is no consensus among the Taiwanese people on the sensitive issue of reunification with the mainland. He wisely linked warmer ties with the mainland to consensus on another issue - improvements in Taiwan's economy through an expansion of financial, trade, transport and cultural links.

Mr Ma has been clever so far in his handling of cross-strait ties. In another positive development, the chairman of his Kuomintang will meet Mr Hu during a visit to Beijing next week. And significantly, in the mainland's hour of need, Beijing reversed past practice and accepted help from three private earthquake relief teams from Taiwan. All this augurs well（预示好兆头） for cross-strait relations. For the sake of regional stability, it is to be hoped Beijing and Taipei seize this opportunity to put dangerous tensions behind them for good.