BEIJING was likely to be pleased with Nationalist Party Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's election yesterday as Taiwan's next president, a victory China hopes will bring the sides closer to renewing bilateral talks, a leading Chinese scholar said.
Beijing will expect Ma to move swiftly toward renewing talks on building close transport and economic links, which have been frozen by Beijing for more than a decade, said Peking University professor Niu Jun.
"It seems to reflect the desire by Ta
iwan voters to get cross-strait relations back on an even keel, which is something the mainland wants too," the professor said after it was announced that Ma was to replace Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, and who has been reviled by Beijing for his pro-independence views.
Beijing claims self-governing Taiwan as Chinese territory and has threatened to invade the island to block its formal independence.
Ma's win should be relatively palatable to Beijing because the Nationalists ostensibly favour unification between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949.
Beijing will also probably be happy at the failure of two referenda over Taiwan's application to join the UN.
Meanwhile, China's ruling Communist Party yesterday called for efforts to "resolutely crush" Tibetan anti-government protests.
In an editorial, the ruling party's flagship newspaper People's Daily said: "We must see through the secessionist forces' evil intentions... and resolutely crush the 'Tibet independence' forces' conspiracy."
In Lhasa, shops reopened but the police presence was heavy, residents said.
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