China Failed to Sway Taiwanās Election. What Happens Now?
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Chinaās leader, Xi Jinping, has tied his countryās great power status to a singular promise: unifying the motherland with Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party sees as sacred, lost territory. A few weeks ago, Mr. Xi called this a āhistorical inevitability.ā
But Taiwanās election on Saturday, handing the presidency to a party that promotes the islandās separate identity for the third time in a row, confirmed that this boisterous democracy has moved even further away from China and its dream of unification.
After a campaign of festival-like rallies, where huge crowds shouted, danced and waved matching flags, Taiwanās voters ignored Chinaās warnings that a vote for the Democratic Progressive Party was a vote for war. They made that choice anyway.
Lai Ching-te, a former doctor and the current vice president, who Beijing sees as a staunch separatist, will be Taiwanās next leader. Itās an act of self-governed defiance that proved what many already knew: Beijingās arm-twisting of Taiwan ā economically and with military harassment at sea and in the air ā has only strengthened the islandās desire to protect its de facto independence and move beyond Chinaās giant shadow.