Pro-independence candidate Tsai Ing-wen has effectively won Taiwan`s presidential elections after Eric Chu, the candidate and chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), conceded defeat.<\/p>\n
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Tsai of Taiwan`s main opposition party was on course for a landslide election victory on Saturday, polls showed, as voters turn their backs on closer ties with China.<\/p>\n
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With more than half the votes counted, Tsai of the Beijing-wary Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was ahead with 58.1 percent, according to a live count from polling stations by Taiwan`s FTV.<\/p>\n
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Eric Chu was trailing in second on 32.5 percent. Veteran conservative candidate James Soong of the People First Party was third with 9.4 percent.<\/p>\n
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The China-friendly KMT had been ruling the island for eight years.<\/p>\n
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Parliamentary polls were also held, and if the DPP wins those too, Tsai will get an even stronger mandate.<\/p>\n
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Tsai has walked a careful path on her China strategy, saying she wants to maintain the “status quo” with Beijing.<\/p>\n
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However, the DPP is traditionally a pro-independence party and opponents say Tsai will destabilise relations.<\/p>\n
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After decades of enmity, current KMT President Ma Ying-jeou has overseen a dramatic rapprochement with China since coming to power in 2008.<\/p>\n
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Although Taiwan is self-ruling after it split with China following a civil war in 1949, it has never formally declared independence, and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification – by force if necessary.<\/p>\n
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The thaw culminated in a summit between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.<\/p>\n
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Yet, despite more than 20 deals and a tourist boom, closer ties have exacerbated fears that China is eroding Taiwan`s sovereignty by making it economically dependent.<\/p>\n
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In 2014, the government was forced to shelve a trade pact after student-led protesters occupied parliament.<\/p>\n
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Beijing has warned it will not deal with any leader who does not recognise the “one China” principle, part of a tacit agreement between Beijing and the KMT known as the “1992 Consensus”. The DPP has never recognised the consensus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pro-independence candidate Tsai Ing-wen has effectively won Taiwan`s presidential elections after Eric Chu, the candidate and chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), conceded defeat. Tsai of Taiwan`s main opposition party was on course for a landslide election victory on Saturday, polls showed, as voters turn their backs on closer ties with China. With more than half the votes counted, Tsai of the Beijing-wary Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was ahead with 58.1 percent, according to a live count from polling stations by Taiwan`s FTV. Eric Chu was trailing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1717,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}