Chinese Media Urges Taiwan To Abandon Independence ‘Hallucination’ After

Expressing concern over a planned visit by a former American official to Taiwan for talks with the new government on the island, China today asked the U.S. to be cautious on the Taiwan issue and not medddle in China’s internal affairs.

Taiwan’s voters gave Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party or DPP a new mandate Saturday, helping it seize control of both the legislature and presidency for the first time ever. On Saturday, Taiwan elected its first female president in history, 59-year-old Tsai Ing-wen.

The KMT, in power for the last eight years, has pursued a policy of closer ties with China, which has been strikingly successful.

The DPP has traditionally leaned in favor of independence for the island from mainland China, which could anger Beijing, which which views Taiwan as an integral part of its territory that is to be taken by force if necessary.

ONCE derided as unfit for leadership because she was a “skirt-wearer”, the election of Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan’s first female president is fuelling hopes the island can break free of the entrenched sexism rooted in its culture.

Addressed the waiting crowds she declared: “Taiwan equals democracy, democracy equals Taiwan”, and “Tonight, we can celebrate, but when the sun rises tomorrow, we must take up the responsibility for reforms”. Reviving Taiwan’s economy, which has been hit by the slowdown in China’s growth, will also be among her key tasks.

“Taiwan is an independent state”, the student who voted for Tsai stressed.

The size of the win could also put additional pressure on Tsai and the DPP, said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who closely follows Taiwanese politics.

Tsai has been thrust into one of Asia’s toughest and most risky jobs, with China pointing hundreds of missiles at the island it claims, decades after the losing Nationalists fled from Mao Zedong’s Communists to Taiwan in the Chinese civil war in 1949. She added it had convinced her of the need to create a strong country and to unify public sentiment.

“We will continue to adhere to the 1992 Consensus and resolutely oppose any form of secessionist activities seeking “Taiwan independence”, it read. And one of Tsai’s biggest critiques when she lost the debate in 2012 was her inability to maintain a relationship with China as a member of the DPP.

However, unlike Ma, she has refused to endorse Beijing’s “one China principle” – although she hasn’t publicly repudiated it either – and told supporters Saturday night that she would work to strengthen Taiwan’s status overseas.

“I believe everyone feels hurt and angry to see that Chou was forced to do what she was made to do”, Tsai said, according to a South China Morning Post report.