The election result marks a turning point in Taiwan’s democracy and relationship with China.<\/p>\n
The DPP win means the island is moving towards a political system in which voters prefer to transfer power from one party to another, ending decades of mostly KMT rule.<\/p>\n
That could make relations with China uncertain, because unlike the KMT, the DPP favours Taiwan’s independence and does not recognise the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) and the People’s Republic of China as part of “one China”.<\/p>\n
The KMT was the Communists’ bitter enemy during the civil war. It fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war and its charter and leaders still favour eventual unification. It remains China’s best hope – and perhaps only hope – of peacefully reunifying with Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Beijing has been closely watching the elections to gauge Taiwanese people’s sentiments and what those sentiments will mean for its goal of reunifying with the last inhabited territory – following Hong Kong and Macau – that it feels was unfairly snatched from it by Japan as a colony in 1895, and then ruled separately by the KMT after the civil war.<\/p>\n
Ms Tsai, a former scholar, has said she wants to “maintain [the] status quo” with China.<\/p>\n
She became chairwoman of the DPP in 2008, after it saw a string of corruption scandals.<\/p>\n
She lost a presidential bid in 2012 but has subsequently led the party to regional election victories. She has won increased support from the public partly because of widespread dissatisfaction over the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou’s handling of the economy and widening wealth gap.<\/p>\n Saturday’s polls come after a historic meeting between President Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in November for talks that were seen as largely symbolic – the first in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n Eric Chu, 54, is the mayor of New Taipei City and stepped up to become chairman of the party in October.<\/p>\n The KMT is at risk of losing its majority in the legislature for the first time in history.<\/p>\n The former accounting professor was seen as popular with young people in the party, but had been unable to change public opinion that is increasingly unhappy with the party’s friendly stance towards China and the island’s economic travails.<\/p>\n In 2014, hundreds of students occupied the parliament in the largest show of anti-Chinese sentiment on the island for years. Labelled the Sunflower Movement, protesters demanded more transparency in trade pacts negotiated with China.<\/p>\n Taiwan for all practical purposes been independent since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island as the Communists, under Mao Zedong, swept to power. Tsai Ing-wen has been elected Taiwan’s first female president. Ms Tsai, 59, leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that wants independence from China. In her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan’s democracy and both sides must ensure there are no provocations. China sees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Eric](\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Taiwan-man.jpg\")
Image caption
Eric Chu’s loss shows the KMT is losing the nearly 70-year monopoly on power.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n–
\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"