When Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) takes office as president tomorrow, she steps onto a tightrope between voter dreams of national pride and a Beijing that wants Taiwan on a short leash.
Tsai’s election victory reflected public desire for a president who would put Taiwan first, not “sell out” to China.
Her political message revolves around the importance of Taiwanese identity and has resonated with voters fed up with living in Beijing’s shadow.
An eight-year rapprochement with China under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) brought trade deals, but little cheer for ordinary Taiwanese, stretched by low salaries and high living costs.
There was also growing concern that economic ties were a back-door route to the erosion of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“Tsai should take a tougher stance on China,” said East Lin, a 32-year-old restaurant manager from Taipei. “The worst thing China could do is to start a war, but that seems very unlikely. I believe Tsai can uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty without causing things to worsen irreversibly.”
Tsai has pledged to diversify economic partnerships and seek a higher profile for Taiwan internationally, where it is sidelined from major organizations due to Chinese objections.
“I hope Tsai can secure more support in the international community to help Taiwan fend off China’s interference,” said 20-year-old college student Ken Lai. “She should also reduce the economic reliance on China to rid Taiwan of its control so Taiwanese can decide our future.”
However, Tsai will have to counterbalance the defensive role her supporters want her to play with keeping Beijing at bay.
The thaw under Ma was enabled by his acceptance that Taiwan was part of “one China,” with different interpretations on each side.
Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party is traditionally pro-independence, has never accepted that notion, although she has pledged to maintain the “status quo” with Beijing.
China has already been making life difficult for Taiwan since Tsai was elected in January.
Taiwanese fraud suspects have been deported from Malaysia and Kenya to China in a move that infuriated Taipei, which said they should be tried on home turf.
Tourist numbers from China have also dropped with speculation Beijing is actively turning off the taps.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) recently said responsibility for any cross-strait crisis “must be shouldered by those who change the ‘status quo,’” a thinly veiled threat to Tsai not to rock the boat.
Beijing has also warned against any attempt to formally declare independence.
Observers agree China relations are likely to cool further once Tsai takes power, but Beijing is unlikely to unleash dramatic measures that would force Tsai to lean closer to Washington — Taiwan’s greatest ally and leading arms supplier.
Tsai’s vision for rebooting the nation’s ailing fortunes includes developing it as a research and development hub for industries including defense and “green” energy, and building economic partnerships with Southeast Asia and India.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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