Taiwan expressed serious concern on Thursday over a Chinese state media broadcast of military live fire exercises and landing drills, just days after a landslide election win by an independence-leaning opposition party in Taiwan. The DPP also won 68 of the 113 seats in Parliament, giving the party legislative control for the first time ever.
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Why did this election matter?
The isle has ruled itself -shek’s Nationalists fled there in 1949.
Tsai Ingwen is a capable and impressive woman and, given that she commands a clear majority in the legislature, she should be able to govern effectively.
Why did the KMT finally lose? Roughly 40 per cent of voters in this election were under the age of 40.
The gulf between Mr. Xi’s Stalinist-style humiliation of critics – the publishing house was preparing a critical biography of him – and Taiwan’s burgeoning liberalism does a lot to explain the victory of Ms. Tsai, whose party advocates Taiwanese independence.
In China’s view, Taiwan is a renegade Chinese province that technically belongs to the mainland under its “One China” policy. China’s state-controlled media and opaque political system make it hard to assess the rumors’ validity.
Some would say so. Though political pundits have highlighted the theme of this election as one of change or of Taiwanese identity, this was more importantly an election of rejection. The reaction to a Taiwanese member of a South Korean pop band reading out a profuse apology to mainland China for showing a Taiwanese flag during a variety show, was credited with boosting support for the DPP in the elections.
However, the president-elect said throughout her campaign she would avoid upsetting China and not try to break away legally to back up the island’s de facto autonomy. It may have even boosted the DPP’s margin of victory.
He joined the Taiwan Affairs Office, which is in charge of policy towards the island and relations with it, in 2013, having previously spent his entire working career with the Fujian government, according to his official biography.
However, Tsai, without using the term “1992 consensus”, said she “understands and respects” the “historic fact” that Taiwan and China “reached some common acknowledgments and understanding in 1992”. “We must ensure that no provocations or accidents take place”, she said. Perhaps none said it better than a Weibo user named Mohuan, herself perhaps also a Facebook crusader: “I would rather stay inside the motherland’s Great Firewall my entire life; for the more I learn about foreign countries, the more I love my own country”.
“The future DPP government is going to be a very moderate force here in Taiwan, very responsible and predictable and very consistent in global relations and domestic policies”, said Joseph Wu, DPP secretary-general. Not only did Chu lose the presidential race, his party lost eight out of 10 legislative seats in his home city of New Taipei.
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Taiwan’s economy is in a slump, inequality is on the rise and housing prices are soaring. “We would certainly welcome steps that are taken on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to try to reduce tensions and improve cross-strait relations”.
