China
By any reckoning, 2008 was an eventful year for China. The high point was the successful organisation of the Beijing Olympic Games, which to the government’s relief passed off successfully. The idea of being subjected to constant international television exposure had long worried the authorities, not to mention the nightmare security prospect of several scores of heads of state and prime ministers gathering for the games’ opening and closing ceremonies. The tight security arrangements, and the deployment of countless plain clothes policemen meant that apart from occasional protests by pro-Tibetan demonstrators, the Games saw very few incidents. In the longer term, a less trumpeted occasion may well turn out to have been of greater importance. This was the visit to Taipei (Taiwan) of a mainland delegation headed up by Chen Yunlin, head of the quaintly named ‘Association for relations Across the Taiwan Straight.’ Chen was the most senior Chinese Communist Party official to visit Taiwan since 1949. His five day visit concluded with an undertaking that the mainland would give Taiwan two pandas as gifts. In return, and not to be outdone, Taiwan offered China an endangered goat and a spotted deer. Such is Chinese diplomacy.