Tsai Ing-wen does not want to "downgrade" Taiwan and wants dialogue with Beijing

Tsai Ing-wen (our photo), re-elected in January 2020, is the bane of mainland China because she considers her island to be a sovereign state. REUTERS / Ann Wang

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Beijing must resolve to live peacefully alongside Taiwan, which will never accept Chinese rule, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday, when she was sworn in for a second term.

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The Chinese central government defends the idea for Taiwan of the “One country, two systems” model, like that in force in Hong Kong, under which the island would keep its freedoms while submitting to Beijing. A solution rejected by Tsai Ing-wen, the 63-year-old president, this Wednesday, May 20, during her inauguration for a second mandate. "  We will not accept the Chinese authorities' use of one country, two systems" to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the status quo between the two sides of the strait,  "she said.

Offer of dialogue

The leader reiterated her offer of dialogue with Beijing and invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to work with her to reduce tensions. "  Both sides have a duty to find a way to coexist in the long term and to prevent the antagonism and differences from getting worse,  " she added.

Tsai Ing-wen, re-elected in January 2020, is the bane of mainland China because she considers her island to be a de facto sovereign state , and that she firmly rejects the Chinese vision of a "single China". Since its election in 2016, China has excluded any offer to negotiate with Taiwan and intensified economic, military and diplomatic pressures against an island which it still sees as a rebel province called to return to the fold of the motherland, by the force if necessary.

Taiwan was at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 the refuge of the nationalists of the Kuomintang led by Tchang Kaï-chek and defeated by the Communists, and the base of the "Republic of China", which wanted to be the legitimate continuity of the first Chinese republic proclaimed in 1912 in Nanjing. Over the decades, especially after the state of emergency was lifted on the island in the 1990s, a distinct Taiwanese identity has emerged, and many Taiwanese people no longer want reunification with Beijing. An evolution that worries Beijing, which sees any formal declaration of independence as a red line.

Read also: Coronavirus: four Asian democracies at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19

The Taiwanese government has won admiration from many capitals for its very effective management of the coronavirus epidemic. The island, yet very close to the Chinese focus of the pandemic, totals 400 cases and seven deaths. "  Taiwan's name has made headlines around the world because of the effective containment of the epidemic,  " said Ms. Tsai. As a health precaution, supporters of the president were asked not to come to the inauguration ceremony. And the guests were placed on separate 1.5-meter chairs.

( with AFP )

Read also: Coronavirus: in Taiwan as in South Korea, tracing is not in debate

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  • Taiwan
  • China
  • Tsai Ing-wen
  • Xi Jinping

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