TAIWAN: POLITICS - Ma Ying-jeou clinches landslide victory in presidential elections
Record ID:
809349
TAIWAN: POLITICS - Ma Ying-jeou clinches landslide victory in presidential elections
- Title: TAIWAN: POLITICS - Ma Ying-jeou clinches landslide victory in presidential elections
- Date: 23rd March 2008
- Summary: MAN READING NEWSPAPER, HEADLINE READS: MA-SIEW WON 2.21 MILLION VOTES PICTURE ON FRONTPAGE OF MA YING-JEOU WINNING ELECTION
- Embargoed: 7th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAHLC3MTK3F8QE58J1F9VEFS79
- Story Text: Taiwanese people are looking forward to closer economic ties with mainland China after the Nationalist candidate Ma Ying-jeou won the presidential election on Saturday (March 22) with a landslide victory over his pro-independence opponent Frank Hsieh.
Ma has billed himself as an economic revival president amid inflation and wage concerns that analysts said swayed the vote to him.
The 57-year-old Harvard-educated former Taipei mayor won 58 percent of the vote, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's candidate Frank Hsieh got 42 percent.
Voters say they are confident the new president elect Ma Ying-jeou will work hard to revitalise the island's sagging economy with his economic policies with the mainland.
"This is of course his policies, I believe he will do very well for this country and the people," said Chang Wen-chin, a Taipei resident.
"By allowing Chinese tourists to come into Taiwan, this will more or less help our economy," said another Taipei resident, Lai Bao-mei.
Ma's win comes after his party, which once ruled all China, clinched a more than two-thirds majority in legislative elections in January, giving it a clear mandate to push ahead with their policies to boost an economy that has lagged some Asian peers.
Ma said on Sunday (March 23) he would consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics this summer if the crackdown worsened in Tibet, a move that would add new tension to long-strained ties between Taiwan and China. He said if the situation in Tibet worsened, he would consider the possibility of not sending athletes to the games out of a 'deep commitment' to human rights.
Andrew Yang, secretary general of the China Council of Advanced Policy Studies said the Taiwan people are putting high hopes on Ma to jumpstart their economy.
"I think the people are expecting some more progressive and active engagement with mainland China, for the sake of Taiwanese interest and for economy in the future. That is the priority, and that is the consensus for the constituency as well. So they are putting hopes into Ma Ying-jeou because he emphasize revitalizing economy, and better relations with Beijing."
Voters have chosen a successor to President Chen Shui-bian, an anti-China firebrand who has repeatedly angered Beijing with pro-independence rhetoric.
The election has drawn keen international attention, with the United States, Russia and Britain all criticising referenda on U.N. membership, which were held alongside the vote and failed for lack of turnout.
Yang said the Taiwanese people did not take to referendum because they saw it as a futile effort to use this as a means to join the United Nations.
"It's a means to nobecause the position in the United Nations is not necessarily decided by Taiwanese people, they can make the impression nobody is against the United Nations, however actually putting this as a target for the government in the near future is quite impossible, because United Nations will not allow two Chinas to be in the membership sitting together," he said.
U.N. membership is out of the question with just 23 countries recognising Taiwan, and with China, recognised by 170 countries, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.
President-elect Ma Ying-jeou said on Saturday he would only consider signing a peace deal with China, an offer Beijing has made with conditions, if it stopped aiming missiles at Taiwan.
Chinese President Hu Jintao offered broad peace talks with Taiwan earlier this month, but under the so-called "one China" policy, which defines the island and the mainland as part of a single country, a concept Taiwan's current government rejects.
Yang said now that Ma has made the clear the conditions for a peace treaty, it up to Beijing to respond.
"Taiwanese international activities are based on two things, one is the competitiveness of the Taiwanese economy, and secondly that whether Taiwan can strike peace between Beijing and Taipei, and that also requires Beijing's consent, and also requires Beijing's leadership determination to respond to the suggestions from Taipei," he said.
China has claimed Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has threatened to bring the island under its control -- by force if necessary. Taiwan says China has more than 1,000 missiles aimed at the island.
Ma said he had no plans to go to China but hinted that he would visit other major nations before taking office on May 20. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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