The greater concerns in China and Taiwan are on the political side, not on the economic side.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The PRC is the big brother in this relationship, and it has the capacity to be generous to Taiwan on this issue in a manner that might do much to defuse that issue internally in Taiwan.
Taiwan is a major economy.
Taiwan has been so well developed economically. But we are underdeveloped culturally.
There is a great deal of concern in the Chinese military that Taiwan's reunification with China is drifting further and further away.
Taiwan matters because of its vital role in spreading democracy in East Asia. Taiwan matters because of its strategic importance to promote peace in the Pacific region.
The mainland Chinese tend to take a Chinese mainland point of view on controversial issues, and the Taiwanese take another the Taiwanese viewpoint.
I have spent time discussing the American political system and current events in Taiwan with the junior diplomats, and they have repeatedly expressed their country's desire to avoid confrontation with China.
China's stock market is inextricably tied to politics.
Contrary to what you might think, China's economy is relatively less efficient, and more polluting, than those of rich countries.
Taiwan and China are related ethnically and close neighbors geographically. There's no reason to resent or to fight against each other.