Taiwan will be a “staunch guardian of peace” and work to maintain peace and stability in cross-Strait relations, she added.
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During her inaugural speech, Tsai, 59, said Taiwanese people have shown they have been “committed to the defence of our freedom and democracy as a way of life”.
While the Nationalists favor unification, Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party advocates formally establishing Taiwan as an independent nation.
Her pledge to maintain the status quo between China and Taiwan would seemingly be easier if it weren’t for Ms Tsai’s role as the flag-bearer for the party representing the island’s left-leaning independence movement.
Tsai acknowledged the talks in 1992 that created the one-China backdrop, but said the government must approach China also based on the constitution, Taiwanese laws and the “democratic principle and prevalent will of the people of Taiwan”. Taiwan inaugurated Tsai as its first female president on Friday, returning the pr.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, he said Tsai would focus on developing Taiwan’s domestic defense industry in an attempt to counteract the poor state of USA arms sales commitment to the nation.
“She didn’t say exactly what China wanted her to say, but she also didn’t say enough to really cause China to froth at the mouth”.
“Tsai tried to strike a conciliatory tone given the lack of trust between the two sides”, said Tang Shao-cheng, a political scientist at Taipei’s National Chengchi University.
Sean King, senior vice president with consulting firm Park Strategies in NY and Taipei, said, “In some ways, Beijing’s hard line only reaffirms for many Taiwanese their choice to have voted for Tsai”.
“The succession of power that has taken place in Taiwan today is a model for mainland China, because they [eventually] allowed their opposition factions to exist legally”.
One segment took on a politically charged event, depicting the 1947 massacre of Taiwanese intellectuals by Nationalist troops from mainland China, an event that fuels nativist sentiments on the island.
With tensions rising in the South China Sea, Beijing is also keen for Taiwan to be its ally rather than be aligned with rival claimants to the disputed islets in the sea.
“The challenges are enormous and I think that she does not underestimate them”, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. With declining economic growth and exports, “it is a hard time, and China is not making it any easier, of course”, Glaser said.
Tsai took the presidential oath of office on Friday at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei, this after winning a landslide victory in January.
China criticized Tsai’s speech, calling it “vague” and “an incomplete answer sheet”, in a statement issued by the Taiwan Affairs Office.
Taiwan became self-governed in the 1940s after a civil war, but China still considers it to be part of its territory.
Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou agreed to dialogue under conditions that cast both sides under Beijing’s one China demand, with Taiwan as the Republic of China and Beijing as the People’s Republic of China.
However, improving relations with the mainland did little to appeal to the locals, who began to see Ma as merely a stooge for Beijing as the economic ties failed to deliver on the economic promises that Ma had made.
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“If Tsai fails to recognize the ’92 consensus and one-China principle, there will be no room left for Taiwan’s diplomacy”, said Li Fei, deputy director of the Taiwan Research Institute of China’s Xiamen University. “The path forward is not a smooth one”, she said. China and Taiwan use the same historic basis for the maritime claim, irking four Southeast Asian countries. “She’s signaled that she would largely focus on domestic issues”, Anthony Kuhn of NPR reported.
