China and Taiwan's trade pact is a big deal

After some years of rapprochement, boosted by the Beijing-friendly policy instituted by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou after he came to power in 2008, China and Taiwan have today signed a trade pact, which recognises the undoubted economic links between the two territories.  Some 60 years ago a civil war in China ended with the Nationalists scuttling off across the Taiwan Straits, allegedly with their trousers stuffed with loot. Since then the island of...