The Central Election Commission declared Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) the 14th president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on January 16, beating her KMT opponent Chu “Eric” Li-luan.
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Taiwan’s independence-leaning opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen won a convincing victory in presidential elections on Saturday and pledged to maintain peace with giant neighbour China, which warned it would oppose any move towards independence.
Among the 113 seats in the island’s legislature, DPP gained 68 seats while KMT got 35 and the New Power Party got five.
Her quiet pragmatism struck a chord with voters, winning the presidency and helping secure a legislative majority for her Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, which espouses independence from the mainland.
“I’m the first rocker in Asia to go to parliament”, said Lim after the victory.
Despite Ma’s efforts to improve relations across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing has done nothing to soften its military threats to invade the island, including the placement of 1,400 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan.
Saluting the people of Taiwan, he said: “It’s a model and source of inspiration to those who aspire for freedom and accountable leadership”. She said both sides have a responsibility to find a mutually acceptable means of interacting, while adding that Taiwan’s global space must be respected.
When searching for “Tsai Ing-Wen” or “elections in Taiwan” in the Chinese messaging service, a notification appeared stating that results of the query could not be shown due to current laws.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1885 to 1945 and split again from China amid civil war in 1949.
“We hope Tsai can lead the DPP out of the hallucinations of Taiwan independence, and contribute to the peaceful and common development between Taiwan and the mainland”, it added.
This is to note that few months before this Presidential election a meeting was held between the leaders of Taiwan and China.
Tsai’s win is considered the people’s message to China, that while they wanted to maintain good relations with the other country, they also wanted their independence.
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Ties between Taiwan and China were strained when the DPP’s Chen governed the nation from 2000-2008 with the mainland labeling the former president as a troublemaker during his eight year tenure as leader. “Any form of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations”.
