Ma leaves behind fruitful legacy in Taiwan

Taiwan residents' overall satisfaction rate with Ma Ying-jeou's eight-year tenure might be just 23 percent, according to a recent poll in Taiwan, but 47 percent of them seem satisfied with the way he handled cross-Straits relations. Chen Shui-bian, Ma's predecessor and former Democratic Progressive Party leader, got 21 percent when he left office in 2008.

The poll does signify the temporary public frustration with Ma's performance. But political legacies aside, he helped put cross-Straits ties on the track of peaceful development, and that was the highlight of his tenure. Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's new leader, should follow in the footsteps of Ma, rather than doing the opposite.

Thanks to Ma's unequivocal adherence to the 1992 Consensus that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, the heads of cross-Straits affairs on both sides met 11 times and signed 23 agreements ranging from trade cooperation to civil aviation since 2008.