UPDATE 2-Taiwan new leader takes office on China pledges
By Ralph Jennings
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSTP812320080520
TAIPEI, May 20 (Reuters) - Taiwan's new president took office on
Tuesday with pledges to forge historic trade and transit ties with
China, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory.
Ma Ying-jeou, 57, the Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate and a former
Taipei mayor, took over from Chen Shui-bian in a ceremony at the
presidential palace, beginning a four-year term after his landslide
election victory in March.
The pair shook hands and walked, smiling, through a presidential
office hallway rimmed with military officials and KMT leaders to an
auditorium where the Taiwan flag and a ****trait of Sun Yat-sen,
founder of modern China, hung in the background.
Ma campaigned for the presidency on a platform focused on breathing
new life into Taiwan's economy and pu****ng Beijing for trade ties and
a peace accord.
China has claimed Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won
the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT Party fled to the
island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan back under its control, by
force if necessary.
"It's a big day," said Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at
City University of Hong Kong. "China will definitely be expressing
hopes for a new beginning."
In a speech later in the day, Ma is expected to offer peace to China,
responding to recent conciliatory words from Chinese President Hu
Jintao and suggesting that the two sides cooperate in international
organisations, Taiwan newspapers said. Continued...
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