Chinese state media on Sunday accused the president of Taiwan, who was re-elected the day before by a large majority for a second term, of "cheating" and sought to discredit her victory, seen as a snub for Beijing. Tsai Ing-wen, who campaigned against Beijing's authoritarianism, won the Taiwanese presidential election on Saturday with 57.1% of the vote despite the campaign of economic and diplomatic intimidation of the communist power to isolate the island.
The media in Beijing, strictly controlled by the communist power, however put the scope of this event into perspective and questioned its legitimacy. "This is obviously not a normal election," commented in an editorial in English the official agency Chine nouvelle. Tsai Ing-wen and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) used "dirty tactics such as cheating, repression and intimidation to get votes," the agency wrote without explaining.
"External dark forces"
Another editorial in New China, published in Chinese, accused Tsai Ing-wen of having bought votes and said "external dark forces" were partly responsible for the election results. Tsai Ing-wen's victory, which garnered 8.1 million votes, more than in the 2016 presidential election, is "just a stroke of luck," said China News.
China considers Taiwan one of its provinces and has vowed to one day regain control, by force if necessary. Tensions are high between the two banks of the Taiwan Strait because Tsai Ing-wen refuses to recognize the principle of the unity of Taiwan and China within the same country as claimed by the communist power.
Unsuccessful bullying campaign
For the Global Times , a daily with a nationalist tone, these tensions are "orchestrated" by Tsai Ing-wen and his party "to arouse fear among the Taiwanese towards the continent". Since Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, Beijing has launched a campaign of economic and diplomatic intimidation against Taiwan, hoping that this would push voters to support a candidate who is more favorable to it, without success.
Chinese diplomacy for its part split Sunday from a terse statement after the re-election of Tsai Ing-wen. "Whatever happens (...) the facts do not change: there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China," said Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Business. Foreign.
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