Taiwan leader Tsai takes office, Cross-Straits ties enter era of uncertainty: Global Times

Taiwan's new leader Tsai Ing-wen took office on Friday.Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party(DPP), won Taiwan's leadership election on Jan. 16.

Tsai is to deliver her inauguration speeches and assume office.

Global Times commented that a new era for a cross-Straits region that is characterized by uncertainty officially kicks off.

It is widely believed that Tsai will not publicly recognize the 1992 Consensus and the one-China principle. But she might use some ambiguity to soften the stance, in order to make her concept of "maintaining the status quo" persuasive.

According to Global Times, compared with Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian, who attempted to promote "jurisprudential independence" against the one-China principle, the DPP is expected to take a softer approach toward independence.

It is a flanking tactic to avoid direct confrontation with the Chinese mainland. What can be assured is that DPP's rule will make the suggestion of Taiwan independence further expand in Taiwan society, and take a larger step away from the mainland politically.

Global Times said that for the mainland, is it a worthy fight with the Tsai administration, which is more moderate than Chen Shui-bian's, but marks a significant regression in the one-China principle. The mainland's endeavors during Chen's "presidency" showed that "jurisprudential independence" will never work out on the island. Global Times predicted that a new round of contention is inevitable to completely drive the topic of Taiwan independence away while making the one-China principle the one and only starting point to maintain the status quo.