中财网mc4接头哪家好:President of Taiwan Is Re-elected, a Result That Is Likely to Please China
来源：百度文库 编辑：中财网 时间：2024/04/20 18:41:17
President of Taiwan Is Re-elected, a Result That Is Likely to Please China
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: January 14, 2012
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected by a comfortable margin on Saturday, fending off a challenge from his main rival, Tsai Ing-wen, who criticized his handling of the economy but also sought to exploit fears among voters that Mr. Ma’s conciliatory approach toward China was eroding the island’s sovereignty.
Aaron Tam/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Ma Ying-jeou
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Mr. Ma’s victory was welcomed by Taiwanese business leaders, who feared his defeat could irritate China and set back the détente that has served them well during the past three and a half years. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade territory, had warned that a win by Ms. Tsai, whose party has traditionally backed formal independence, could threaten the “peaceful development of cross-strait ties.”
Recent polls had suggested the race would be very close, raising anxiety among those who prefer the status quo. That group included some American officials, who expressed unease in private that a win by Ms. Tsai could complicate the already difficult relations between China and the United States, a longtime ally of Taiwan.
Pursuing closer ties with China — and the money that flowed to manufacturers, hotel owners and farmers with new trade and transportation deals — helped solidify Mr. Ma’s support despite withering attacks from Ms. Tsai. More than 200,000 of Taiwan’s citizens who live and work across the Taiwan Strait in China flew home to vote, most of them taking the direct flights that Mr. Ma helped establish. Not surprisingly, many returnees were Ma supporters spurred by the polls that had showed him in a close race.
“What this election showed is that business interests in Taiwan now trump ideological ones,” said Edward I-hsin Chen, a former legislator and a professor at Tamkang University.
Mr. Ma, 61, of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, won with 51.6 of the vote. Ms. Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party, drew 45.6 percent. A third candidate, James Soong of the People First Party, who had been expected to siphon off as much a tenth of the electorate from Mr. Ma, received 2.8 percent, according to the Central Election Commission. Turnout was more than 74 percent.
“The people gave their approval of our efforts to put aside disagreements and focus on peace on both sides of the straits, turning crisis into economic opportunity,” Mr. Ma told his supporters.
Mr. Ma’s party also retained a majority in the Legislature, though with a reduced margin.
The Chinese agency that handles Taiwan affairs lauded Mr. Ma’s victory, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news service, saying it showed that improved cross-strait ties were the “correct path and have the support of the Taiwanese compatriots.” The Obama administration, meanwhile, issued a statement of congratulations to Mr. Ma, saying “Cross-strait peace, stability and improved relations, in an environment free from intimidation, are of profound importance to the United States.”
Although Ms. Tsai had moderated her party’s stance on independence, many voters recalled the presidency of Chen Shui-bian, whose antagonism worsened relations with China between 2000 and 2008 and stirred concerns in the United States.
Taiwan and China have been in a formal state of war since 1949, when the Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war and fled the mainland, moving their Republic of China government to Taipei. Since then, China has not budged on its overriding goal: to bring Taiwan back into the fold, even if it requires force.
Except for Mr. Chen’s presidency, the Nationalists have governed the island, including during four decades of martial law. The vote was the fifth presidential contest since Taiwan emerged from single-party rule in 1996.
In recent years, China’s senior leaders have expended a great deal of political and economic capital trying to woo Taiwan’s skeptical citizenry. It was a marked shift from the bellicosity of the past, when China verbally menaced Taiwan. During the presidential election of 1996, it launched missiles into the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait.
But the margin of victory this time — down from the 17 point spread from his first election in 2008 — highlights the deep divisions among an electorate still wary of China’s intentions.
“The true message of this election is that people in Taiwan are anxious about the future, and Beijing would be wise to note this division,” said Richard C. Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Mr. Ma may find dealing with China far more challenging in his second term, analysts say. With low-hanging fruit on trade and transportation matters already picked, both sides could be forced to tackle thornier concerns, including a peace treaty, measures to protect Taiwanese investment in China and the future of the roughly 1,500 Chinese missiles aimed at the island.
The economic benefits from Mr. Ma’s first term have been pronounced. They include a landmark trade agreement between the two sides, which slashed tariffs on 800 items, helping to increase Taiwan’s exports to China last year by 35 percent over 2009.
And spending by mainland tourists has pumped $3 billion into the local economy.
Despite such figures, many working class and middle-class Taiwanese say they have yet to feel any trickle-down effect. In her campaign, Ms. Tsai mined anxiety over the island’s slide from the 1990s, when Taiwan experienced reliably double-digit growth. Growth this year is expected to be just over 4 percent.
But a plurality of voters appeared to side with Mr. Ma’s contention that improved relations with China were the island’s best hope for prosperity.
Chao Pei-nan, a homemaker, 55, said there was nothing to be gained by alienating China, although she, like most Taiwanese, has no interest in unification. “Isolation will do us no good,” Ms. Chao said, who returned here from New Zealand last week to vote. “In fact, the closer we get to China, the more they will see the benefits of democracy and freedom and the better the chance we have to influence them.”