Taiwan leader meets top US official after election win

Chinese military exercises across the Taiwan Strait and air patrols around the island have added to tensions

Fresh from a landslide reelection victory, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met with the de facto US ambassador to Taipei, as China warned that countries should stick with recognising communist-ruled Beijing as the rightful government of "One China," including Taiwan.

William Brent Christensen, a US diplomat who is director of the American Institute in Taiwan, congratulated Tsai on her victory and she thanked him for his support.

"The Taiwan-US partnership has already grown from a bilateral partnership to a global partnership. In the future, we will continue to build on the foundation we have created over the past three years to strengthen our cooperation on global issues," Tsai said, according to a record of the remarks from the US side.

China considers self-governed Taiwan a part of its territory and opposes any official contact with the US as an interference in its domestic affairs. The US does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but is legally bound to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself against threats.

Tsai has sought closer relations with the US while pushing back against pressure from China, and the Trump administration has reciprocated.

Since separating from China during civil war in 1949, Taiwan has developed its own identity but never declared formal independence. Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island of 23 million people and threatens to use force to seize control if necessary.

In her victory speech after her rival, Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist Party, conceded defeat, Tsai urged China to resume talks with Taiwan without preconditions while warning against threatening use of force.

"Today I want to once again remind the Beijing authorities that peace, parity, democracy and dialogue are the keys to stability," Tsai said.

"I want the Beijing authorities to know that democratic Taiwan and our democratically elected government will never concede to threats." Tsai's victory is a setback for Chinese President Xi Jinping at a time when Beijing is grappling with an economic slowdown and long-running, sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong.

After election results were announced late Saturday, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said China is willing to work with the Taiwanese people to advance the “peaceful reunification of the country."

But he cautioned that China would firmly protect its territorial integrity and opposes any separatist moves and Taiwan independence, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

"We hope and believe that the international community will continue adhering to the One China principle, understand and support the just cause of Chinese people to oppose the secessionist activities for 'Taiwan independence' and realise national reunification," said a statement from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.

The scale of Tsai's win will is a loss of face for Xi and could raise sensitivity from Beijing toward moves to draw closer to Washington and to strengthen Taiwan's sovereignty, the Eurasia Group said in an analysis.

That will not change Beijing's aims, but may lead it to "reconsider tactics — including the tail risk possibility of tougher economic, diplomatic and saber-rattling measures," said analysts Kelsey Broderick and Michael Hirson.

Opinion polls had showed Tsai leading before the election, but a huge turnout helped her claim more than 8 million votes. She got 57 per cent of the vote to Han's 39 per cent.

Her Democratic Progressive Party also managed to win in areas that often go to the China-friendly Nationalists in central and southern Taiwan. It retained its majority in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan, though the vote was closer there.

Tsai has acknowledged that Beijing may well up its pressure on Taiwan following her victory, after cutting off formal ties with her government over the past two years, restricting visits by Chinese tourists and seeking to further isolate Taipei by luring away more of its few diplomatic allies, which now number only 15.

But she received a resounding public mandate for her rejection of China's suggestion for a "one country, two systems" approach to governing Taiwan after the months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, convinced many in Taiwan such a plan is unworkable.

Since its transition to full democracy beginning in the 1980s, Taiwan has increasingly asserted its independent identity from China even though it is not recognised by the United Nations or any major nation.

Saturday's election was its seventh presidential vote since the island began a transition from martial law under the Nationalists to democracy.

The island exercises all the roles of a sovereign nation, issuing its own passports, maintaining its own military and legal system and serving as an important hub in the global high-tech supply chain.