China: Will cut off ties if Taiwan won’t toe line

Beijing warned Taiwan it would cut off critical contacts with the island if its new President Tsai Ing-wen does not state her support for the concept that there is only “one China”, state media reported on Saturday.

The comments came a day after Ms Tsai — a Beijing-sceptic — delivered her inauguration speech, where she called for “positive dialogue” with the Chinese mainland, but stopped short of any compromise on Beijing’s demands that she back its “one China” principle.

That principle was recognised by outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party, who oversaw an eight-year rapprochement betw-een the former bitter rivals.

Although Taiwan is self-ruling after splitting with the mainland in 1949 following a civil war, it has never formally declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party is traditionally pro-independence.

Beijing and Taipei have held regular, official communications since 2014, but that will stop unless Ms Tsai acknowledges the “1992 consensus”, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.