Change possible, not guaranteed, with Taiwan’s first female president

The victory will open a new chapter in Taiwan’s history, but the China that the island faces today, is much different from the first time Tsai’s DPP won the presidency in 2000.

Tsai made the remarks when she met with William Burns, a former US deputy secretary of state, at the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP’s) headquarters.

Taiwan’s new leader, who holds a master’s degree from the USA and a Ph.D from the United Kingdom, has consistently said she wants to maintain peace with China and warned that “suppression” from the mainland would only damage ties between both governments.

Taiwanese stocks are bucking the weaker trend across Asian markets this morning after Tsai Ing-wen was elected as the first female president of the self governing island over the weekend.

“We support artistic exchanges between the sides and consistently encourage exchanges between young people from the two sides”, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said.

In the past eight years, under President Ma Ying-jeou’s KMT administration, Beijing and Taipei signed numerous agreements allowing for greater trade, investment, direct flights and tourism.

Tsai won 56.1 percent of the vote in the elections to sweep aside rival Eric Chu of the China-leaning Nationalist Party that had ruled Taiwan since 2008.

Tsai Ing-wen does not recognize the “one China” formula, although she also does not advocate provoking China.

The urgent challenge for Tsai is to achieve economic development that will be felt among the Taiwanese people, while stabilizing Taiwan’s relations with China.

Tsai said on World Animal Day a year ago that she would allocate more resources to the issue if her party was returned to power. After all, it’s 2016. It reiterated Beijing’s “one China principle”, saying it is willing to work with the political party if it agrees that Taiwan belongs to China, Al Jazeera reported.

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.

Kishida said only that Japan hoped the issues surrounding Taiwan would be “resolved peacefully”.

“Taiwan is an important partner and a precious friend of Japan”. In her remarks Saturday, she referred to Taiwan by its formal name, the Republic of China. “The change of president would mean still letting Taiwanese make the decision”.

“Hong Kong demonstrates that the vision that China has is one that the people who would be subject to it are unhappy with”.

Her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party beat the ruling Kuomintang, which has overseen friendlier and ever-closer ties with China on Saturday.

In response, her South Korea management company announced it would curtail her commercial activities on the Chinese mainland, apparently scared of offending Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its sovereign territory and has banned other Taiwanese pop stars whose political views it does not like. “We will never compromise”, Huang, 42, said.