TAIPEI: Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said that the island nation’s recent elections were its “best gift” to China, hailing the polls’ potential to show the mainland the path to democracy.
Ma has said that hundreds of millions of people in mainland China watched Taiwan’s presidential
candidates debate live on television last month for the first time through the Internet.
The polls, which saw Ma re-elected, could inspire Chinese democracy supporters, he said in a statement released by the Presidential Office.
“The peaceful elections, a sign of democracy taking root in and bearing fruit on the soil of a Chinese community, will make them feel that this will also happen in the mainland,” the statement said.
“I believe that this is the best gift from us to the mainland,” it added.
According to the Taiwanese leader, the January 14 polls will demonstrate to the mainland that “headcount is the best way to solve differences between the two sides.”
Ma, of the China-friendly Kuo-mintang party, retained his post after four years of policies that have seen the most dramatic thaw in the island’s ties with China since the two sides split more than six decades ago.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island, and has vowed to get it back, by war if necessary.
Ma has said that hundreds of millions of people in mainland China watched Taiwan’s presidential
candidates debate live on television last month for the first time through the Internet.
The polls, which saw Ma re-elected, could inspire Chinese democracy supporters, he said in a statement released by the Presidential Office.
“The peaceful elections, a sign of democracy taking root in and bearing fruit on the soil of a Chinese community, will make them feel that this will also happen in the mainland,” the statement said.
“I believe that this is the best gift from us to the mainland,” it added.
According to the Taiwanese leader, the January 14 polls will demonstrate to the mainland that “headcount is the best way to solve differences between the two sides.”
Ma, of the China-friendly Kuo-mintang party, retained his post after four years of policies that have seen the most dramatic thaw in the island’s ties with China since the two sides split more than six decades ago.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island, and has vowed to get it back, by war if necessary.
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