When Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, was a child, the streets echoed with the government’s pledge to eliminate China’s leader Mao Zedong and reconquer mainland China.
Now, Mao can be seen again in Taiwan: not on political posters, but on new advertisements for retail savings accounts in renminbi, featuring the late communist ruler’s face.
Taiwan is now the second large market after Hong Kong to be able to clear renminbi as China slowly internationalises its currency. Although Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, is not a gleaming hub of finance, the island is China’s fifth largest trade partner and thousands of local companies, both large and small, work on the mainland.