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Opinion | Beijing is ramping up the pressure on Taiwan to undermine Tsai Ing-wen’s achievements
- Beijing aims to discredit the Tsai administration, erode Taiwan’s institutions and aggravate a polarised society with a view to assisting its local partners
- Other attacks are being waged by local politicians who will use anything to hurt the administration and lift their political standing
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Tensions in the Taiwan Strait have risen to a pitch not seen for decades since the re-election of President Tsai Ing-wen of the Taiwan-centric Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
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Given a powerful mandate with a record number of votes over Han Kuo-yu, her pro-Beijing opponent from the Kuomintang (KMT), Tsai has also benefited from her government’s enviable response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It has positioned Taiwan as a leader in combating the disease and earned the country unprecedented publicity internationally.
Aggravated by Taiwan’s unexpected opportunity to shine on the international stage and more confident than ever that it can dictate the terms in the Taiwan Strait, Beijing has responded by doubling down on the military front and through an intensification of its “sharp power” tactics.
These all aim to discredit the Tsai administration, erode Taiwan’s democratic institutions and exacerbate a polarised society with a view to assisting its local partners in the nationwide elections in late 2022 and the general election in 2024.
At every turn, Beijing has rebuffed appeals by Tsai for calls and a resumption of cross-strait talks, more necessary than ever amid high military tensions in the strait.
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Rather than meet Taiwan halfway, Beijing has responded by calling Tsai’s olive branch “so-called dialogue” and accused her administration of continuing to provoke “by seeking independence, confronting the mainland at every turn, [and] deliberately creating confrontation across the Taiwan Strait”.
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