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| Image: Flickr User - Howard SD |
By Joseph A. Bosco
The president-elect has pledged “no surprises” in cross-strait relations.
Beijing’s worst nightmare has materialized – and it turns out to be not so bad after all, if China can tolerate modest success. Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party has swept the presidency and, for the first time, the national legislature.
But Tsai Ing-wen immediately used her landslide election to assure Beijing and Washington that she would be a reliable, predictable partner in preserving cross-strait stability. Now it is time for the other governments involved, China and the United States, to reciprocate her positive message.
Throughout the campaign and since her victory, the president-elect has had to address three different audiences: Taiwan’s voters, particularly her own enthusiastic supporters; China’s ruling Communist Party; and the United States government, which was more sensitive to the views of the latter than the former.
Tsai, a sober, scholarly lawyer, skillfully negotiated a political tightrope, adhering to her principles and those of her party while avoiding inflammatory language or a defiant tone whenever she addressed the issues separating China and Taiwan. She maintained that posture after her dramatic and historic win – Taiwan’s sixth direct presidential election since the end of martial law, the third peaceful transfer of power, and the elevation of the first female leader in a Chinese-speaking society.
Read the full story at The Diplomat