The DPP is likely to interpret the massive mandate it received in the just-concluded elections as support for its pro-independence policies.
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“It’s a relatively moderate reaction, which should inspire cautious optimism”, Mr. Roy says in an e-mail.
China’s first official statement linked future cooperation to Ms. Tsai’s acceptance of the principle that Taiwan is part of “one China”, something she is unlikely to offer.
Her party too said they “respected” those who exercised freedom of speech. Tsai has promised to move beyond the political division.
Since 2008, Beijing has not only been working to deepen ties with Taiwan but has had a willing partner in the China-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou and his Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party.
In recent years the sides have signed a slew of agreements on everything from finance to tourism.
On Saturday, Tsai, a former law professor, won the election with 56 percent of the vote. There was some cause for optimism that Beijing will opt for the latter, given the TAO’s comment that it will pursue relations with any party that acknowledges “one China” – potentially leaving the door open for an alternative formula that somehow satisfies both sides. He attributed this response to two factors: the DPP decision not to target China in its campaigning, and Beijing having months to resign itself to the DPP taking power.
Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China, as well as the current status quo.
“If Beijing can adjust its strategy and Tsai is willing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping half way, a mutual accommodation between them is not impossible”, Richard C. Bush III, the director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institute wrote. “But it will not be easy”. On top of that, the Taiwanese people were angered by a video released hours before the election of a teenage pop star apologizing, under China’s pressure, for waving a Taiwanese flag. It called such Taiwanese aspirations “hallucinations” and potential “poison”. A Global Times editorial described them as being “hallucinations”. But popular resentment is said to be strong that the expansion of Taiwanese firms’ activities in China has led to the hollowing out of the island’s industries and jobs, and that the deeper cross-strait business relations have not benefited Taiwanese people at large while turning the island increasingly dependent on the mainland.
“What’s most important in Taiwan is to recognize that its democracy is its major leverage and major bargaining chip” in its relations with China and the world.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. “We’ll have good relations with leaders in the region”. The Communist Party is highly concerned about contagion. “But the younger generation are excited to have a woman leader for the country”.
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Chinese officials are proven to pay on-line commentators to post views supporting of government policies. Another wrote: “For so many years, the Taiwanese people have slandered the mainland, and its celebrities have made every effort to make the Mainland look bad in their dirty ways”, a reference to celebrities such as singer A-Mei, who was banned from China for several years after performing the Taiwanese national anthem in 2000.
