U*E
发帖数: 3620 | 1 Taiwan's president re-elected
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 10:19 AM EST, Sat January 14, 2012
Ma Ying-jeou gestures to supporters outside the campaign headquarter in
Taipei, Taiwan on January 14.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: President will take office May 20
Obama congratulates Ma on victory
Ma advocates keeping the "1992 Consensus" with China
Tsai is suspected of pushing a pro-independence agenda
Beijing (CNN) -- Taiwan's incumbent President Ma Ying Jeou was re-elected
Saturday in an election seen as critical to the future of an economy that
has boomed thanks to warmer ties with China.
With all votes counted, the Central Election Commission said Ma, of the
ruling Kuomintang Party, had 51.6%. Challenger Tsai Ing-wen of the
Democratic Progressive Party had 45.6% and James Soong of the People First
Party had 2.8%.
U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Ma on his victory, saying "Taiwan
has proven to be one of the great success stories in Asia."
Ma will take office May 20.
Ma advocates maintaining the status quo with China under the "1992 Consensus
," a tacit and ambiguous agreement reached 20 years ago between Beijing and
Taipei under which both sides agreed on the principle of "one China" without
agreeing on how it is to be defined or interpreted.
The Consensus has been the basis for cross-strait dialogue that has led in
recent years to the unprecedented warming of ties between Taiwan and China.
Tsai, seeking to become Taiwan's first female president, rejects the 1992
Consensus. She has called instead for a yet-undefined "Taiwan Consensus"
that leads some in Beijing to suspect her of pushing a pro-independence
agenda.
As many as 200,000 people, most of them mainland China-based Taiwanese, had
been expected to return to Taiwan for the vote. Taiwan does not allow
absentee voting and the growing political clout of Taiwan's expatriate
businessmen was expected to be a determining factor in the election.
Companies chartered planes to Taiwan so their employees could return to cast
ballots, said Professor Ray-Kuo Wu of Fu Jen University.
"Traditionally, business leaders have shied away from commenting on
political issues," said Wu. "But there's a recognition that there's a need
to continue with the 1992 Consensus and that it's the best choice for
Taishang in terms of the prosperity of Taiwan."
Tsai's campaign to paint Ma's pro-Beijing policies as selling out Taiwan's
sovereignty may have cost her votes, analysts say.
Although Taiwan's formal name is "Republic of China," Taiwan has considered
itself independent from the People's Republic of China since 1949 when the
Kuomintang or Nationalist government lost the Chinese civil war and withdrew
to Taiwan.
Still, Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province and has never ruled out
the use of force to achieve reunification.
If China were to use military force, the United States -- which does not
support Taiwan independence -- could intervene under the Taiwan Relations
Act, a 1979 law declaring that peace and stability in the area are in U.S.
interests. That raises fears of a much wider conflict were China to
intervene.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland congratulated Ma and
called the election the "latest milestone" for Taiwan's democracy.
"We share with the Taiwan people a profound interest in the continuation of
cross-Strait peace and stability," she said in a statement Saturday.
Obama said that peace and stability has also benefited U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Relations between Taiwan and Beijing softened in 2008 when the two
governments opened trade, transport and postal services, allowing direct
links for the first time. What had once been a daylong ordeal, where flights
to Beijing had to be routed through Hong Kong, has become a short hop
across the Taiwan Strait.
Tourism has strongly benefited, with 30% of the 6 million foreign visitors
to Taiwan coming from mainland China. Exports are also enjoying a bonanza.
For its part, mainland China, also drawn by the economic prospects of closer
ties, has been content not to disturb the status quo, in marked contrast to
earlier elections.
In 1996, it reacted angrily to the first direct presidential elections in
Taiwan, believing that the favorite to win that poll, Lee Teng-hui, was
advocating a separate identity and formal statehood.
Beijing had already conducted missile tests in the Taiwan Strait aimed at
intimidating voters and the United States moved two aircraft carriers into
the region. Beijing's posturing created the opposite effect, however, and
Lee won the poll handsomely.
Since then, Beijing has taken a hands-off approach, not wanting to upset
what is settling into a strong economic relationship.
"The Taiwanese government has stated that the election is their domestic
affair and, so far, there has been nothing overt in terms of opposition from
Beijing's side," says Wu. |
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