Chinese mouthpiece sees limited fallout from vote

The DPP's election victory may cloud relations with China temporarily and embolden those calling for statehood for Taiwan, the China Daily said yesterday.

But Beijing does not expect relations with Taiwan to "drastically worsen" over the long term and will not relax its conditions for unification talks, the official English-language newspaper said.

In the first reaction in China's official media to Saturday's election, the newspaper quoted Chinese experts on Taiwan as saying the fallout would be limited despite the crushing defeat of the KMT, who favor eventual unification.

"The results may temporarily cloud the relations between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland but no dramatic change in the basic pattern of cross-strait ties is expected," it quoted Li Jiaquan (李家泉) from the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying. "No matter what happens, the DPP will go nowhere if it sticks to a pro-independence stance."

Other analysts say Beijing was surprised and alarmed by the result, which undermined its strategy of sidelining President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the hope that the KMT would return to power.

But the restrained media reaction reflects China's overriding conviction that expanding business links will draw the two sides together.