Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen says talks with Beijing could resume

Tsai includes vague promise of cross-strait reconciliation ‘eventually’ during presidential election debate

Main opponent Han Kuo-yu accuses her of using anti-mainland tactics to canvass voter support

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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen during the televised presidential candidates’ debate ahead of the self-ruled island’s elections in January. Photo: AP

Published: 12:14pm, 30 Dec 2019Updated: 10:41pm, 30 Dec 2019

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has warned the island’s voters democracy was at risk from Beijing, but said she believed there was a chance of cross-strait reconciliation in the foreseeable future, without elaborating on how that would occur.

“As long as we can forge internal unity to jointly face the current situation across the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and to demonstrate our resolution to uphold our national sovereignty while seeking to maintain cross-strait peace and stability, I believe Beijing authorities will have to deal with Taiwan eventually,” Tsai said.

Speaking on Sunday during a televised debate between the three presidential candidates in January’s election, Tsai stopped short of saying how she would forge internal unity, given the sharp political divide between her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the mainland-friendly camps which have troubled the island for decades.

Cross-strait relations dominated the debate as Tsai exchanged fire with populist Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu, from the mainland-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) and James Soong Chu-yu, chairman of the smaller People First Party (PFP).

She accused Han, seen as Beijing’s most favoured candidate, of failing to uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty when it came to the question of whether he accepted the “one country, two systems” model being applied in Hong Kong and Macau. “Perhaps you say you reject it now, but it is all because you are under intense pressure to say so,” Tsai said.