Taiwan president says he wants talks with China, but not “one country, two systems”

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president, waves while sitting in a vehicle as she leaves a polling station during the presidential and legislative elections in Taipei, Taiwan, on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020. Photographer: Betsy Joles/Bloomberg

The taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged China Xi Jinping to “find a way to co-exist” with the island of democratic government, as he began his second term riding high with a record approval rating and an increase in AMERICAN support.

In a speech after a refined of the opening ceremony on Wednesday in Taipei, Tsai, 63 years old, published one of his strongest calls yet for the equality of dialogue with Beijing. Xi the government severed the direct communication across the Taiwan Strait during Tsai’s first four years in office, citing his refusal to accept that both sides belong to “one China”.

“Cross-strait relations have reached a historic turning point. Both parties have the duty to find a way to co-exist in the long term and to avoid the intensification of antagonism and differences,” Tsai said. “I also hope that the leader of the other side of the strait will have the same responsibility, and work with us to jointly stabilize the long-term development of cross-strait relations.”

Tsai called for “peace, parity, democracy and dialogue” in relations between the two sides, and reiterated their opposition to unification with China under “one country, two systems”, as the framework used in Hong Kong. She also pledged to build the core of industries, including the 5G and other information and communication technologies, biotechnology, medicine, defense and renewable energy.

“Taiwan’s relationship with the united states will continue to warm as the U. S-China relationship continues to break down,” Esteban Moreno, president of the Taipei-based Strait Policy of the Association, said that before Tsai’s speech. “While the U.S.-China relationship remains tense, cross-strait ties will not improve. All Taiwan can do, and Tsai, which are expected to do, is to avoid being provocative, and change the status quo, but also not giving in.”

The event marks another historic high point of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which has grown over the past four decades from a loose band of pro-independence dissidents to become Taiwan’s dominant political bloc. A landslide victory in elections in January reaffirmed the DPP’s control of the executive and legislative powers, and to the left of the Kuomintang — which governed Taiwan for the greater part of the time since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949 — trapped in the opposition.

Tsai begins his second term with an approval rating of 61%, the highest since he took office in May 2016, according to a survey conducted by the radio station, TVBS published Monday.

The DPP of the place has struck down efforts by Xi, the Chinese president, to use his country’s economic might draw Taiwan towards a unification of the offer. Tsai views Taiwan as a sovereign nation and has rejected Beijing’s “one China” bottom line.

“Beijing has given up on the hope for the manifestations of the “sincerity” of Tsai — in part because they set the bar very high and, in part, because I don’t think that she is sincere anyway,” said Jonathan Sullivan, director of China programs at the University of Nottingham. “None of the moderation that Tsai has shown has been good enough to deny the predestined opinion in Beijing, which is a independence a wolf in the status-quo of the clothing of the sheep.”

In his first term, Tsai repeatedly benefited from Donald Trump, the feud with China, the celebration of an unprecedented phone call with the president of the united states in December 2016 and securing Taiwan first American combat aircraft deal in three decades. Tsai support of pro-democracy protests in the former British colony of Hong Kong in the past year helped to consolidate its China-skeptical base, and to ensure the re-election.

The Triumph of the administration threw its weigh behind an international campaign to grant Taiwan access to the World Health Assembly earlier this week. And although the attempt was unsuccessful, it highlighted the lengths to which the united states was willing to go back a greater international role for Taiwan.

From Tsai came to the presidency in 2016, Beijing has persuaded seven former Taiwanese partners to change links with the people’s Republic of China. Taiwan is now officially recognized by only 15 countries, the majority of small states in Latin America and the Pacific. Tsai also has made little progress in obtaining a bilateral trade agreement with the united states

The U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo congratulated Tsai in a statement on Tuesday, saying that the united states “has long considered Taiwan a force for good in the world and a reliable partner.” The two sides “have a shared vision of the region — which includes the rule of law, transparency, prosperity and security of all,” he said.

The range of bets Tsai could climb in his second term, as disputes between Washington and Beijing a symbol of the predictions that the two sides are headed toward a new cold war. While Tsai had so far avoided any movement that could induce an aggressive response on the part of Beijing, she can cope with the increased demand of the DPP’s pro-independence wing after its recent electoral success.

A figure of watch is Tsai’s incoming vice president, Lai Ching-te. Lai, a former prime minister who has described himself as an “independent worker” is much more forceful advocate of a formal break from China, Tsai or his predecessor, Vice President Chen Chien-jen.

Tsai’s speech comes just two days before Chinese prime minister Li Keqiang is scheduled to deliver its annual report to the National People’s Congress in Beijing, a platform on which Chinese leaders have often used to deliver pointed messages to Taiwan. Last year, Li promised that China would “resolutely oppose and deter any separatist plans or activities that seek the independence of Taiwan.”

“Beijing will continue to use a mix of sticks and carrots approach with Taiwan, but with an emphasis on the last,” said Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Washington-based World of Taiwan Institute. “In fact, most of the indicators point to China to increase its multi-faceted pressure campaign against Taiwan.”

Although Taiwan has avoided an outbreak of coronavirus as those of China or South Korea, Tsai is facing many of the same economic concerns as Taiwan’s neighbors. The growth in the first quarter cooled at the slowest rate since the year 2016, with an increasing number of economists forecasting the economy’s first contraction since the year 2009.

And Taiwan companies may also suffer the collateral damage of Trump’s efforts to defend itself against the influence of China, such as new U.S. rules barring any manufacturer of circuits using U.s. equipment for the supply of Huawei Technologies Co. Taiwan, the largest company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., gets an estimated 14% of its revenue from Huawei.

“In the next four years, Taiwan faces a variety of threats from China and the united States,” said Ashley Feng, an associate researcher at the Center for a New American Security. “Opportunities for China and Taiwan to cooperate in the next four years are limited and shrinking.”

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