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 by Staff Writers Taipei (AFP) Feb 19, 2019
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen has confirmed she will seek reelection next year despite falling ratings and an increasingly strained relationship with China. Tsai, who was elected in 2016 as the island's first female leader, told CNN she wanted to "complete" her vision for Taiwan in an interview on board her presidential jet, released Tuesday. "It's natural that any sitting president wants to do more for the country and wants to finish things on his or her agenda. And it's quite natural for a president seeking another four years to complete his agenda or her agenda," she said. Tsai, 62, won a landslide victory two years ago to defeat the ruling Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party which oversaw an unprecedented thaw in cross-strait ties but began to unnerve many voters with its perceived cosiness to the mainland. The result rattled Beijing because Tsai -- who hails from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- refuses to acknowledge that the self-ruled island is part of "one China". She reached out to the mainland's leadership after her election to seek talks but was rebuffed. Instead, Beijing cut communication with her administration, stepped up military drills and poached several of Taiwan's dwindling diplomatic allies. Her popularity at home has waned considerably, primarily a backlash to domestic policies such as much needed public-sector pension reforms and a push for gay marriage rights that incensed and galvanised conservatives. Her ratings fell as low as 15 percent after she stepped down as head of the DPP following a series of major defeats in November local elections. Tsai said she is "confident" about her reelection prospects, despite calls from some senior DPP members asking her not to stand again in early 2020. "This is something I have prepared for," she told CNN. "It's again another challenge. Being president, you're not short of challenges. At good times you have challenges of one sort, and in bad times you have challenges of another sort." Tsai blamed the election setback on what she called a "difficult reform agenda" pushed by her government, rather than the frosty cross-strait relations. "You get attacks, you get criticism, the people don't feel the result of the reform so much when you've just started," she said. The embattled leader's popularity has rebounded somewhat after a bellicose New Year's speech by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, describing Taiwan's unification with the mainland as "inevitable". Tsai delivered her own riposte, saying Taiwan would never relinquish its hard won democratic freedoms, a response that led to a boost in her ratings. Her main challengers will be from the opposition KMT, with several of its heavyweights already indicating their interest in running, including former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu, who lost to Tsai in 2016.
Dissidents trapped inside Taiwan airport allowed in after 125 days Taipei (AFP) Jan 31, 2019 Two Chinese activists who spent more than four months trapped in limbo at a Taiwanese airport have been temporarily allowed to stay on the island, officials said Thursday. Liu Xinglian, 64, and Yan Kefen, 44, spent 125 days marooned in the transit area of Taoyuan airport after they arrived from Bangkok in September last year. The pair ran from China because of their political activism and were granted refugee status by the UN in Thailand. But they fled once more after receiving repeated vi ... read more
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