The very day after his May 20 inauguration Chen made it his duty to visit the island. Welcoming the presidential jet was county magistrate Chen Shui-tsai, a retired army officer who stayed on in Kinmen after serving for 27 years as a soldier on the island. If the mainland shows goodwill, Kinmen will be a major beneficiary. Yes, it's true that few Kinmen people voted for Chen. But it's clear that Chen Shui-bian has been changing since his election.
People here are more confident about the future.
Kinmen consists of a group of 12 islands offshore from the Fujian city of Xiamen, territory that Kuomintang troops have held despite countless attacks by the PLA since the Nationalist government collapsed on the mainland and fled to Taiwan in 1949. The population includes some 12,000 soldiers. Most residents were poor until 1992 when the government ended Kinmen's status as a military zone, relaxing restrictions on islanders bartering goods with their counterparts in Fujian, and allowing tourists to visit. Since then the islands have prospered. But Kinmen remains a key strategic territory for Taiwan.