無 / The concept of “soft power” was popularized by Joseph Nye’s works in the 1990s. It is then often referred to the ability of a political body, such as a state, to indirectly influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies through cultural or ideological means. This paper seeks to apply this idea to the study of cross-Strait relations to see whether Taiwan might exert soft power against China. As we know, it is not just Taiwanese that are highly concerned with the 2008 election of Taiwan. We take this election and especially President Ma as an example to see whether Ma can help facilitate the image of Taiwan and democracy among Chinese. After interviews on several dozen Chinese college students, we found that Ma’s image, as the soft power, does make the difference. And if Taiwan can make best use of its soft power, we may not need so much military buildup to defend Taiwan.