Taiwan's strong GDP growth shows it does not need China to succeed

Taiwan is having a seriously good trade war. Preliminary data out last week showed growth actually accelerated in the fourth quarter to 3.4%, from 3% in the third. Even better, President Tsai Ing-wen just won re-election by a landslide, giving her a strong mandate to rebalance Taiwan's economy away from China.

Yet that endeavor is easier said than done. Tsai's team still needs to devise a cogent plan to decouple from Asia's biggest trading nation, one determined to quash Taiwan's pro-independence movement.