Taiwanese Vice President-elect Vincent Siew led a delegation to southern China's Hainan Island on April 11 to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, modeled after the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. It remains unclear whether Siew will meet privately with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The meeting represents a tentative step by both sides, with Taipei and Beijing seeking to get a feel for each other after March Taiwanese presidential election. Ultimately, however, Taiwan — under its newly elected president — will keep its distance from the mainland. Neither side has known what to expect ever since Taiwanese President-elect Ma Ying-jeou got elected. Beijing had hoped Ma's victory would lead the way to improved cross-straits relations. The mainland spent the last few years courting Ma to undermine his rival, outgoing President Chen Shui-bian, who holds a pro-Taiwanese independence stance. Right up until the month before elections, both the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party and opposition Kuomintang (from which Ma and Siew both hail) pushed for a more moderate stance toward China in a bid for a last-minute edge over each other. But since getting elected, Ma carefully has remained at arm's length from Beijing, consciously taking a step back from his relatively familiar former relationship with Beijing to demonstrate to the Taiwanese people that his role is to protect Taiwanese interests only — not those of any other government. To this end, he spoke of his desire to visit the United States and Japan before his May 20 inauguration. He also made clear he has no intention of visiting the mainland anytime soon, since he can accomplish just as much from Taiwan in terms of economic rapprochement with Beijing. Moreover, a trip to the mainland would allow his domestic political opponents to attack him for kowtowing to Beijing. Beijing probably never expected Ma personally to visit the mainland, and it is unclear whether Beijing has a protocol to deal with such a visit anyway. In the months ahead, Ma's focus probably will remain on the United States and Japan as he continues to rebalance domestic perceptions of him as Beijing's tool. Taiwan thus is going to be making sure it does not get too close to China.