Beijing seeks to build ties with Taiwanese cities after ruling party suffers election defeat
- Local elections saw independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party lose control of several strongholds
- US says polling highlights strength of self-ruled island’s democratic system
Beijing said on Sunday it would welcome more cooperation between Taiwan’s cities and prefectures and the mainland after the island’s independence-leaning ruling party suffered a local election reverse.
The losses suffered by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may also take some heat off the already strained China-US relations, within which the self-governed island has been a sensitive issue for decades.
In Saturday’s poll, the DPP was defeated in seven of the 13 cities and counties it had previously controlled. The results prompted Tawian’s president Tsai Ing-wen to resign as the party’s chairwoman.
“The [poll] results reflected the strong wishes of Taiwan’s general public that they want to continue to share the benefits of peaceful developments in cross-Taiwan Strait relations, as well as improving the economy and living standards,” mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang said.
The mainland would continue to uphold the 1992 consensus between Beijing and Taipei that they belong to the same country, he was quoted by Xinhua as saying, adding that it would “resolutely oppose any separatist forces involved in ‘Taiwan independence’ and other related activities”.