Taiwan re-elects Tsai in clear message to China
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen declared a landslide victory in yesterday’s election as voters delivered a stunning rebuke of Beijing’s campaign to isolate the self-ruled island and handed its first female leader a second term.
Tsai, 63, announced her victory as thousands of jubilant supporters cheered and waved flags outside her party headquarters with the ongoing vote count revealing an all but unassailable lead.
“Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish our free, democratic way of life and how much we cherish our nation,” she told reporters.
Her main rival, Han Kuo-yu of the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party, had conceded defeat shortly beforehand.
Official results showed Tsai was romping ahead with 57 percent -- more than eight million votes -- yesterday evening. Han trailed behind with 38 percent.
The Central Election Commission was still counting votes when Tsai declared, but Han knew he could not close the gap.
The result is a huge blow for Beijing, which has made no secret of wanting to see Tsai turfed out and the KMT take her place.
Over the last four years it ramped up economic and diplomatic pressure on the self-ruled island, hoping it would encourage voters to support Tsai’s opposition.
But the strong arm tactics backfired and voters flocked to her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), fuelled in part by China’s hardline response to months of huge and violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Tsai pitched herself as a defender of liberal democratic values against the increasingly authoritarian shadow cast by China under President Xi Jinping.
Comments