Beijing warns new Taiwan leader on independence

[yuiyoshida]

"If 'independence' is pursued, it will be impossible to have peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits," the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said in a statement hours after Tsai was sworn in.

BEIJING: Beijing warned Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen against seeking independence on Friday (May 20), cautioning that peace would be "impossible" if she made any moves to formally break away.

The remarks came just hours after Tsai's inauguration speech struck a conciliatory note, calling for a "positive dialogue" with China on fraught cross-strait ties in her much-anticipated address.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the Kuomintang nationalist forces lost a civil war to the Communists, although Taiwan has never declared an official breakaway.

But Beijing still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

While Tsai has pledged to maintain the status quo with Beijing, authorities there are highly suspicious of her and her Democratic Progressive Party, which is traditionally pro-independence.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/beijing-warns-new-taiwan/2802832.html