Ma Ying-jeou,
Taiwanese President, Wins Re-Election In Close Race
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN 01/14/12
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DO- stability +
prosperity (biz opportunity) vs. undermining
de facto independence , making political union inevitable
Washington - reduce the risk of being embroiled in a
Taiwan-China conflict
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TAIPEI, Taiwan --
Taiwan's president won re-election Saturday, paving the way for a continuation
of the China-friendly policies that have delighted Beijing and
Washington, and caused consternation among some in Taiwan worried about
the durability of their de facto independence.
With about 99 percent
of the vote counted, the official Central Election Commission said President Ma
Ying-jeou had garnered 51.6 percent of the total against 45.6 percent for Tsai
Ing-wen of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party. A third candidate,
James Soong, once a heavyweight with Ma's Nationalist Party, had 2.8 percent.
Ma's Nationalist Party
also retained control of the 113-seat legislature, though with a reduced
majority.
Speaking before
thousands of jubilant supporters in downtown Taipei, Ma said his China policies
had resonated with voters.
"They gave us
support for our policy to put aside differences with the mainland. To search
for peace and turn it into business opportunities," he said.
Since taking office in
May 2008, Ma has tied Taiwan ever closer to China, which for the last 60 years
has represented a military threat, a political rival and, most recently, a key
commercial partner.
The two sides split
amid civil war in 1949, and China has never renounced its threat to use
military force to bring the democratic island under its control. But over the
past several years, and especially since Ma was first elected, tensions have
eased considerably amid an upsurge in trade and new transportation and tourist
links across the 100-mile-wide (160-kilometer-wide) Taiwan Strait.
Ma's re-election will
be seen in Beijing as a big victory for President Hu Jintao, who has
moved away from China's previous policy of repeatedly threatening the island
with war and instead has tried to woo Taiwanese by showing the
economic benefits of closer ties.
Still, Hu has funded a
wide-ranging military expansion that has made the use of force a more credible
option. A Ma defeat would have strengthened military hard-liners just as
Hu is preparing to step down to make way for a younger group of leaders.
There was no immediate
reaction from Beijing on the election results.
Ma's victory was
welcomed by the United States, Taiwan's most important security partner despite
shifting its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
"We congratulate
Ma Ying-jeou on his re-election and the people of Taiwan on the successful
conduct of their presidential and legislative elections," the White
House said in a statement.
Drastically lowered
tensions have substantially reduced the chances that the U.S. will be
embroiled in a Taiwan-China conflict at a time when it is trying to repair
its economy, steady relations with Beijing and re-engage in East Asia after a
decade of preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Cross-Strait
peace, stability and improved relations, in an environment free from
intimidation, are of profound importance to the United States," the White
House statement said.
"We hope the
impressive efforts that both sides have undertaken in recent years to build
cross-Strait ties continue." Bruce Jacobs, a China expert at Monash
University in Melbourne, Australia, said, "Beijing, Washington and even
Australia will all breathe better with a Ma victory."
While there is little
appetite in Taiwan for political union
with Beijing, a majority of Taiwanese do want to engage the mainland
commercially, because they see it as an economic force whose footprint is
constantly growing.
Since taking office 3
1/2 years ago, Ma has sanctioned big upsurges in direct flights across the
strait, given the green light to accelerated Chinese tourist visits to Taiwan
and opened the door to Chinese investment.
His signature
achievement was the completion of a China trade deal in June 2010 that lowered
tariffs on hundreds of goods. While most of Taiwan's $124 billion worth of
exports to China last year were electronic items such as television
displays and cellphone chips, there was also a big upsurge in agricultural
sales from southern Taiwan, long a stronghold of Tsai's party.
Ma's victory was a bitter blow to Tsai, a
55-year-old London School of Economics Ph.D., who invested great efforts in
driving home her message that Ma's policies were not only widening economic
inequality but also undermining Taiwan's de facto independence in
exchange for economic benefits from China – a claim meant to resonate with her
party's pro-independence base.
While the DPP used to
push for formal Taiwanese independence, under Tsai it has adopted a more
moderate posture, insisting it wants to work with China, though without the
same degree of intensity it attributes to Ma.
DPP partisans – and
others on the island – worry that closer commercial links with the mainland
will force Taiwan into a state of dependency that they fear will make political
union inevitable. During the campaign, Ma insisted he has no intention of discussing
the sensitive unification issue with Beijing during a second term, but fears of
a closer political connection remain intact.
In his acceptance
speech, Ma pledged to boost support for poorer Taiwanese and narrow the growing
rich-poor divide while reaching out to civil society in making policy.
He promised to seek
Taiwanese entry into international economic and cultural organizations from
which it is now excluded by Chinese opposition, and to protect Taiwan's
sovereignty, security and "the dignity of the Taiwanese people."
