Cross-Strait relations talks had broken down. Chen Shui-bian was elected President of the ROC in 2000. Politically, Chen is strongly pro-Taiwan independence. Chen's repudiation of the 1992 Consensus combined with the PRC's insistence that the ROC agree to the "one China" principle for negotiations to occur prevented improvement in cross-strait relations. Hu Jintao became President of the PRC in 2003, though he was ruling "de facto" paramount leader as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since late 2002. Chen called for talks without any preconditions, repudiating the 1992 consensus while Hu continued to insist that talks can only proceed under
King Hu heroine as the central protagonist. Leaving the Shaw Brothers Studio in 1966, Hu travelled to Taiwan, where he made another "wuxia" movie, "Dragon Inn". "Dragon Inn" broke box office records and became a phenomenal hit and cult classic, especially in Southeast Asia. This tense tale of highly skilled martial artists hidden in an inn was said to be the inspiration for Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) and Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" (2004). In 2003, the award-winning Malaysian-born Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang made "Goodbye, Dragon Inn", a tribute to Hu, in which all the action takes place