China is certainly not happy with the goings-on in Taiwan at the moment, even as the future of cross-strait relations might hit a rocky patch. The result of the recent elections in Taiwan heralded the return of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to power after eight years of the pro-China party Kuomintang (KMT).
Taiwan also has its first female president, with Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP, who promised to maintain relations with China but warned that Chinese ‘suppression’ would not help matters. This has not gone down well with China, who have warned that any move to seek freedom from the mainland will have adverse consequences. They have even gone as far as calling a move for democracy a ‘hallucination’
China has always seen Taiwan as an integral part of its territory and even has missiles pointed at the island. For eight year, the KMT kept cross-strait relations cool, but the DPP has a shaky relationship with China. On one hand, Taiwan must be applauded for electing a lady to the country’s top post but on the other hand, a break in Taiwan-China relationships will make the entire region and the US too uneasy.
In many ways this will be the start of an interesting era for Taiwan and it remains to be seen what the DDP led by Tsai will do, with regards to relations with China.
