Taiwan election: China blames ‘dirty tactics’ for Tsai Ing-wen’s win

Chinese state media has accused Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of ‘dirty tactics’ and cheating after she was re-elected.

Tsai Ing-wen gestures to supporters in Taipei after being re-elected as President of Taiwan. Picture: AP

Chinese state media has accused Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of “dirty tactics” and cheating after she was re-elected with a landslide victory in a stunning rebuke of Beijing’s campaign to isolate the self-ruled island.

Ms Tsai, who has pitched herself as a defender of liberal democratic values against an increasingly authoritarian China, secured a record-breaking win in Saturday’s presidential election.

Chinese state media downplayed her win, casting doubt on the legitimacy of her campaign.

“This is obviously not a normal election,” said official news ­agency Xinhua in an English-­language editorial on Sunday.

Ms Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party used “dirty tactics such as cheating, repression and intimidation to get votes, fully exposing their selfish, greedy and evil nature”, it added.

Xinhua also accused Ms Tsai of buying votes in a Chinese-­language op-ed. It said “external dark forces” were partly respon­sible for the election results.

Beijing, which has vowed to one day take Taiwan, loathes Ms Tsai because she refuses to ­acknowledge that Taiwan is part of “one China”.

Over the past four years, the Chinese government has ramped up economic, military and diplomatic pressure on the island, hoping it would scare voters into supporting Ms Tsai’s opposition.

The strong-arm tactics have backfired, and voters flocked to the DPP, fuelled by China’s hardline response to months of huge and violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Chinese state media has accused Ms Tsai, who frequently invokes Hong Kong’s protests as a warning about a Beijing-­controlled Taiwan, of fearmongering.

Ms Tsai and her party are “orchestrating tensions”, wrote the nationalistic Global Times.

At the end of last year, the Taiwanese leader “wantonly hyped up the so-called threat from the Chinese mainland while slandering Han Kuo-yu’s mainland connections”, it said, referring to her Beijing-friendly main opponent from the Kuomintang party.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the world should abide by the idea that there was only one China, ruled by the Communist Party.

“We hope and believe that the international community will continue adhering to the one-China principle, understand and support the just cause of Chinese people to oppose the secessionist activities for ‘Taiwan independence’ and realise national reunification,” he said.

In her victory speech, Ms Tsai warned China not to threaten force against the self-governed ­island. She said voters “have shown that when our sovereignty and democracy are threatened, the Taiwan people will shout out determination even more loudly”.

Taiwan has developed its own identity since separating from China in 1949, but has never declared formal independence.

Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island of 23 million ­people and threatens to use force to seize control if necessary.

AFP, AP