China prepares to elect first woman president, sends warning to Taiwan

As a British-educated admirer of Margaret Thatcher,
Tsai Ing-wen, who studied in London, is the woman
set to become leader of China’s fierce rival Taiwan
was always likely to be regarded with suspicion by
Beijing’s Communist Party apparatus.
The fact that she is head of a party dedicated to
promoting the island’s independence from the
Chinese mainland only makes matters worse.
Beijing duly met expectations yesterday by firing a
warning shot across the bows of Tsai Ing-wen,
favourite to become first woman leader of Taiwan -
the first woman leader, in fact, in the modern
Chinese world.
Zhang Zhijun, China's minister responsible for
Taiwan affairs, warned it would be “unswerving and
firm as a rock” in the face of threats to its
sovereignty over the island.
"Let's not regret the value of peace and
development after we've lost it," he said, in a New
Year’s message.
Ms Tsai, an academic by background, is an unusual
arrival in the conservative and male-dominated
world of Far East Asian politics. But polls put her
Democratic Progressive Party well in the lead for
the presidential election due to take place in two
weeks’ time.
Her sex may not officially be as important to
Beijing as her politics - the DPP, unlike the ruling
Kuomintang, believes Taiwan would be better off
declaring the island to be an independent country
rather than maintaining the international
community’s polite fiction that it is an integral part
of China.
But the fact that Taiwan will become the second of
China’s close and democratic neighbours to be
ruled by a woman - the other being President Park
Geun-Hye of South Korea - will be a constant
reminder of the political revolutions China prefers to
resist. China’s ruling inner circle - the Politburo
Standing Committee - has never had a woman
member.

Lindaikejisblog.