Tsai Ing-wen took the oath of office as the new president of Taiwan on Friday (May 20, 2016), marking the start of a new and potentially tricky chapter in the self-governing democratic island’s relations with arch-rival China.
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“Cross-Strait relations have become an integral part of building regional peace and collective security”, she told thousands outside the presidential office. In this process, Taiwan will be a staunch guardian of peace that actively participates and is never absent.
She said her administration would “work to maintain peace and stability” in relations between the sides.
Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won parliamentary and presidential elections by a landslide in January.
It takes over after eight years under China-friendly nationalist, Ma Ying-jeou.
Q: How has China responded to Tsai and her inaugural address so far?
Police in Taipei stand guard at Tsai’s inauguration.
“We also congratulate the Taiwan people on the occasion of this peaceful transition of power, Kirby said in a statement, “which marks another milestone in the development of Taiwan’s vibrant democracy”.
Tsai is under pressure from the United States not to rock the boat with Beijing and risk destabilising the region. She did not come up with concrete solutions to ensure peaceful and steady development of cross-strait relations.
Official mainland Chinese news outlets largely snubbed the inauguration, while searches for Tsai’s name and “Taiwan” were blocked on social media.
What Ms Tsai said in her speech is unlikely to satisfy Beijing.
“(Chinese officials) don’t want the issue to blow up right now either.
Taiwanese political scientist Shane Lee said he expected China to react, although not too strongly. China has pressured the new government to stick to the “one China” principle agreed with the Nationalists.
She mentioned the 1992 meeting without using the word “consensus”, saying the two sides had reached “various joint acknowledgments and understandings”.
“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.
As a crucial market for Taiwan’s products, China could also exert added stress on Taiwan’s ailing economy. In April, exports suffered a year-over-year drop for the 15th consecutive month, their longest slump ever. The economy is heavily reliant on trade with the mainland, although trade fell in the first quarter of this year by 11.5 per cent.
Analysts doubt any dispute would arise that would significantly draw in the U.S. “The Chinese see themselves as having a very large tool box to deal with Taiwan and they don’t immediately need to turn to the United States and insist that the U.S. manage this problem for them”, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex closed up 0.44% at 8,131.26 on Friday.
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“Limited fiscal space will constrain the capacity of the government budget to fund Taiwan’s new growth model that is envisioned by Dr. Tsai”, Diron said.
