Taipei: Taiwan’s main opposition nationalist party chose former Leader Eric Chu as his new chairman on Saturday in the election overshadowed by increasing pressure from Chinese neighbors.
Four candidates, including the Chairperson of Petahana Johnny Chiang, has competed for party leadership who has advocated a closer relationship with Beijing.
That means approving Beijing’s request that it considers Taiwan as part of China, something ruled by the Progressive Party of the Taiwan Democrats has refused to do so.
China has threatened to use the power to bring Taiwan under control and increasingly mobilize military, diplomatic and economic pressure in an effort to weaken the administration of President Tsai Ing-Wen and the opinions sway among Taiwanese, who strongly support the status quo independence de-facto .
The attention of public sentiments, the nationalists have advocated less fierce relations with China, rather than moving directly towards unification between sides, which are bound by economic, linguistic and cultural bonds that are close.
Chu ran and lost the landslide against Tsai in 2016, before he served as a party chair and regional head outside the capital of Taipei.
He may appear as a party candidate in the next presidential election in 2024, although the selection process has not started.
Tsai is constitutionally prohibited from running for the third.
Under Chiang Kai-shek, the nationalists rose to power in China during the 1920s and led the struggle against Japanese invaders to the end of World War II.
Chiang relocated the government, still officially known as the Republic of China, to Taiwan in 1949 when Mao Zedong’s communist swept in power in mainland China.
Taiwan began to switch from the rules of martial law to multiparty democracy in the 1980s and held the first direct presidential election in 1996.
Since then, power has shifted between the nationalists, also known as KMT, even though Tsai has won twice healthy.
Margin and party have control over national legislature.
China refused to recognize the Taiwanese government and ensure it was excluded from the United Nations and other international organizations.
Beijing said the participation of the island in a role such as observers to the World Health Assembly depends on IT supporting the “principle of one-China” and “’92 consensus,” named after the agreement reached the year of representatives from nationalist and communist representatives who stated that the parties were part of the parties from a single Chinese country.
Following the first TSAI election victory in 2016, China cut all formal contacts between the government, prohibiting Chinese tourism groups from visiting the island and installing a campaign to justify the number of Taiwan diplomatic allies.
With increasing frequency, China has also sent a military aircraft into the airspace near Taiwan and conducted threatening military exercises.
Some in response, the US has increased political and military support for the island, despite the lack of formal diplomatic bonds between them.