Taiwan’s new President holds out olive branch to China

Taipei

She struck a conciliatory tone in the face of an increasingly hostile Beijing. Tsai took office as the island’s first female president after winning a landslide victory in January to defeat the ruling Kuomintang, ending an eight-year rapprochement with Beijing under outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou.

Voters felt Ma had moved too close to China, which still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification. Beijing-sceptic Tsai swept in with a campaign to restore Taiwanese pride. But she sought to cast Taiwan as a force for peace in front of a jubilant crowd of more than 20,000 at the presidential palace in Taipei, where she was sworn in.

“The two governing parties across the strait must set aside the baggage of history, and engage in positive dialogue, for the benefit of the people on both sides,” she said. Relations with Beijing have already cooled since she won the presidency, with China putting pressure on Tsai to back its “one China” message. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party never recognised the concept, and did not swerve from that stance in her speech.