China military reports landing drills days after Taiwan election

Tsai’s election as the fourth directly elected president of Taiwan marks a significant political transition as the Democratic Progressive Party also gained control of the Taiwanese legislature, occupying 68 seats of the 113 seat legislature after Saturday’s elections for the first time in history. But as disruptive as the tests were to sea and air traffic, the election went ahead and Lee won a solid majority for a second term as Taiwan’s president.

The Facebook pages of Sanli News and Taiwan’s Apply Daily have also been flooded by critical comments, accusing them of supporting Tsai and her DPP.

That should not lead Tsai and the DPP to return to the hardline stance toward China taken by the previous DPP government under Chen Shui-bian from 2000 to 2008.

The myth trumpeted by the regime in Beijing for over 40 years – that Taiwan is not a real country but only a renegade China province – is not longer sustainable. The DPP is likely to interpret the massive mandate it received in the just-concluded elections as support for its pro-independence policies. The missile tests were created to rattle the Taiwanese electorate and send a message that then-President Lee Teng-hui’s subtle drift away from the One China policy was not to be tolerated. “We’ve all been taught from small that Taiwanese are compatriots, and Taiwan is the jewelled island”, wrote one.

Any return to tensions would drastically impact the USA pivot to the Pacific and, in a worst case scenario, could result in the United States and China being dragged into war on opposing sides.

“Our democratic way of life is forever the resolve of Taiwan’s 23 million people”, she said.

The pro-Independence Democratic Progress Party won a landslide victory with 56.1 per cent of the vote, meaning DPP leader Dr Tsai Ing-Wen will soon become the first female head-of-state in the Chinese-speaking world.

It may well be that Beijing will have to accept Tsai favouring a formula it likes less than the ‘1992 consensus.’ Amid territorial disputes and other quarrels around the region, the last thing China is looking for is another hostile neighbour right on its doorstep.

Japan and Taiwan have not been spared from the hard historical issues and territorial disputes that trouble Tokyo’s relations with Beijing and Seoul, however.

“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”, Mr. Bush wrote in a blog post.

“But it will not be easy”. “You people have none of that”, said one. The decline in support for the KMT is largely the result of the party’s failure to tackle many local issues, including economic stagnation, deterioration of the investment climate and little increase in people’s incomes. 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. That interpretation fits with Tsai’s repeated assertions that she will maintain the “status quo” of cross-strait relations, rather than seeking to overturn Ma’s policies.

The mere fact that the DPP will take power does not mean that Tsai will make any moves toward legal independence from China.

The Tsai administration will be looking to diversify Taiwan’s economic, political, cultural and security relations. They represent a more vocal and assertive group of young Taiwanese who are more assertive of Taiwan’s independence and at the same time more focused than the DPP on social justice issues.