Taiwan held the equivalent of a midterm election on Saturday. The results were brutally disappointing for President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) – so disappointing that Tsai almost immediately resigned as head of the party, although she remains president of Taiwan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met on Friday with a delegation of Taiwanese that included Lien Chan, the former chairman of the Kuomintang party (KMT), which is currently the opposition but ran the country until the year 2000. Supporters of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complain that the trip to China undermines President Tsai Ing-wen, whose election two years ago enraged mainland China and prompted it to begin an aggressive campaign of diplomatic and economic isolation against Taiwan.
Contents: China’s warplanes conduct ‘encirclement’ patrols around Taiwan’s and Japan’s islands; Encirclement patrols follow explicit Chinese war threats against Taiwan; China unification continues to lose support among the people of Taiwan
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Contents: Taiwan’s pro-independence party wins historic presidential election; Pop star’s Taiwan flag incident illustrates how tense relations are
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Contents: Russia and Ukraine escalate mutual trade sanctions over occupied Crimea; Despite China’s disapproval, US will sell $1.83 billion in weapons to Taiwan
Contents: Presidents of China and Taiwan to meet in Singapore on Saturday; China asserts a ‘bottom line’ to US in South China Sea
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