Protests after Iran admits downing plane: All the latest updates - Al Jazeera English

Protesters in Iran's capital, Tehran, have demanded the resignation of senior leaders following the admission of authorities - after days of denials - that Iranian forces accidentally downed a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 bound for Kyiv, Ukraine crashed minutes after takeoff from the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on Wednesday. It happened hours after Iran launched missile attacks on US forces in Iraq in retaliation for the US  assassination of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. 

More:

Here are all of the latest updates as of Sunday, January 12:

Twitter users decry Trump's Tweets

Twitter users criticised Trump for saying he stood in solidarity with the Iranian people, noting that he previously threatened to attack 52 Iranian sites "very hard" as tensions between the two nations escalated earlier this month. 

"How about you sit down and mind your own business?!" one Twitter user said. 

Yes we saw how you stood with us when you threatened our cultural sites, starved Iranians with sanctions, and banned us from entering the US. How about you sit down and mind your own business?!
بشین بابا! pic.twitter.com/wbK0KZrCAE

— M. Ali Kadivar محمدعلی کدیور (@MAliKadivar) January 11, 2020

"Only on planet Trump can you ban Iranians from visiting their family in the US, deny them access to life-saving drugs, threaten to bomb their cultural heritage, and then claim that you are in solidarity with them," another Twitter said, referring to US sanctions against Iran and the US administration's Muslim ban.

Trump 'monitoring protests' in Iran

US President Donald Trump told Iranians in tweets in both English and Farsi that he stands by them and is monitoring the demonstrations.

"To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I've stood with you since the beginning of my Presidency, and my Administration will continue to stand with you," he tweeted.

"There can not be another massacre of peaceful protesters, nor an internet shutdown. The world is watching," he added. 

"We are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage," he said. 

The government of Iran must allow human rights groups to monitor and report facts from the ground on the ongoing protests by the Iranian people. There can not be another massacre of peaceful protesters, nor an internet shutdown. The world is watching.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2020

Britain's ambassador to Iran briefly arrested 

The United Kingdom confirmed its ambassador, Rob Macaire, was arrested briefly by Iranian authorities during demonstrations in Tehran. He was accused of "inciting" the protesters in front of the Amir Kabir University on Saturday.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the arrest was a "flagrant violation of international law" and repeated calls for Iran to de-escalate tensions.

"The Iranian government is at a crossroads moment," Raab said in a statement. "It can continue its march towards pariah status with all the political and economic isolation that entails, or take steps to de-escalate tensions and engage in a diplomatic path forwards."

Truth about Iran crash could not be hidden: Ukraine's Zelenskyy

The findings by Ukrainian experts in Iran meant that the truth about the crash could not be concealed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a televised address.

He also said that he had agreed with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on the beginning of joint work to decode the black boxes of the Ukrainian plane that was shot down this week. He also urged Ukraine's international partners to be united and persistent until the investigation was complete.

Read the full story here.

Click here to read earlier updates

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFsamF6ZWVyYS5jb20vbmV3cy8yMDIwLzAxL3Byb3Rlc3RzLWlyYW4tYWRtaXRzLWRvd25pbmctcGxhbmUtbGF0ZXN0LXVwZGF0ZXMtMjAwMTEyMDU1MDMwMjA0Lmh0bWzSAXFodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbGphemVlcmEuY29tL2FtcC9uZXdzLzIwMjAvMDEvcHJvdGVzdHMtaXJhbi1hZG1pdHMtZG93bmluZy1wbGFuZS1sYXRlc3QtdXBkYXRlcy0yMDAxMTIwNTUwMzAyMDQuaHRtbA?oc=5

2020-01-12 07:00:00Z
52780544880119

Taiwan's President thanks voters after winning reelection - CNN

Tsai's comfortable victory caps a remarkable comeback after devastating local election results in 2018 saw her step down as leader of the Democratic Progressive Party following its crushing defeat in races across the self-governing island.

Following Saturday's vote, Tsai addressed tensions with China over the territory's sovereignty, saying Taiwan is willing to engage with China but that China must respect the voice of Taiwan's voters.

"The results of this election carry an added significance because they have shown that when our sovereignty and democracy are threatened, the Taiwanese people will shout our determination even more loudly back," Tsai said during a news conference.

Tsai also urged China to abandon threats of force against Taiwan and said all countries should consider Taiwan "a partner, not an issue."

With more than 99% of the votes counted by Taiwan's Central Election Commission, Tsai's 8 million votes surpasses Ma Ying-jeou's 2008 record of 7,658,724 votes. In Saturday's vote, Han Kuo-yu received more than 5.4 million votes, and James Soong received more than 600,000 votes.

Han, of the Kuomintang (KMT) party and the main opponent to Tsai, conceded defeat Saturday in a speech to supporters, adding that he had called Tsai to congratulate her.

The election was dominated more than ever by relations with Beijing, which was accused of trying to bully voters and distort the results in its favor.

Tsai's resurgent popularity has been largely courtesy of domestic fears over China. Han was seen by some voters as being too close to Beijing, as many looked with concern at unrest in Hong Kong -- once seen as a model for some in China for a potential future takeover of de facto independent Taiwan.

Fears of China loom

Taiwan is a democratically governed island of 23 million people in the South China Sea. A Japanese colony until 1945, it was taken over by the Kuomintang after they lost the Chinese civil war and moved their Republic of China (ROC) government to the island.

KMT-ruled Taiwan was a dictatorship for many decades before democratic reforms began in the late 1980s, leading to its first direct presidential election in 1996. Since then, the island has gone through a major change in its identity, with many -- particularly younger -- people regarding themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese and supporting full independence from the mainland. That would mean the ROC, as Taiwan still calls itself, would become the Republic of Taiwan.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has never controlled Taiwan, but that has not stopped the Communist government regarding the island as an integral part of its territory and vowing to "retake" it, by force if necessary.

In the past, as Taiwan has appeared poised to drift further out of its orbit, Beijing has resorted to aggressive measures -- for instance, firing missiles into the sea near the island ahead of the 1996 elections. Last month, Beijing sailed its new aircraft carrier into the Taiwan Strait, which divides the island from mainland China, along with several naval frigates. The move was greeted with some alarm by Taipei, which urged Beijing to uphold "peace and stability across the strait and in the region."

This week, the Global Times, a nationalist Chinese state-run tabloid, quoted Chinese officials and analysts as warning "that reunification of the motherland is an inevitable trend regardless of who wins."

According to some, in addition to bellicose statements and shows of force, Beijing also pursued a more subtle approach to influence the elections, targeting Taiwanese voters with fake news and misleading information.

Numerous instances of disinformation regarding voting procedure, party policies, ID requirements and Tsai herself were tracked by the Taiwan FactCheck Center, an independent group. One particularly prevalent piece of fake news is that Tsai's PhD from the London School of Economics is somehow illegitimate, despite the university repeatedly confirming the degree.

Taiwan's Central Election Commission also warned of a surge in fake news and disinformation in the run-up to Saturday's vote.

This story has been updated.

CNN's Rebecca Wright and Kristie Lu Stout contributed reporting.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiQ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMS8xMS9hc2lhL3RhaXdhbi1lbGVjdGlvbi1pbnRsL2luZGV4Lmh0bWzSAUdodHRwczovL2FtcC5jbm4uY29tL2Nubi8yMDIwLzAxLzExL2FzaWEvdGFpd2FuLWVsZWN0aW9uLWludGwvaW5kZXguaHRtbA?oc=5

2020-01-11 16:43:00Z
52780545603502

2 US service members killed in Afghanistan - CNN

Two service members were also injured in the incident in the southern province of Kandahar. The service members, who were conducting operations as part of NATO's Resolute Support mission, have not been identified.

Between 12,000 and 13,000 US troops are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.

There have been more than 2,400 total deaths of US service members since the start of America's longest war in 2001. Last year was the deadliest in five years for the US in Afghanistan, with 23 service members killed during operations in the country in 2019.

In late December, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the death of Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Goble, who died as a result of injuries sustained during combat operations.

The latest reported casualties come as the US has restarted peace talks with the Taliban.

Trump has signaled publicly that he wants to draw down several thousand troops from the country. But over 3,000 US troops were recently deployed to the Middle East as tensions rise in the region following the US killing of an Iranian general.

This story has been updated.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMS8xMS9wb2xpdGljcy91cy1zZXJ2aWNlLW1lbWJlcnMta2lsbGVkLWFmZ2hhbmlzdGFuL2luZGV4Lmh0bWzSAVxodHRwczovL2FtcC5jbm4uY29tL2Nubi8yMDIwLzAxLzExL3BvbGl0aWNzL3VzLXNlcnZpY2UtbWVtYmVycy1raWxsZWQtYWZnaGFuaXN0YW4vaW5kZXguaHRtbA?oc=5

2020-01-11 15:51:00Z
52780549339450

Trump’s imminent threat theory of Soleimani strike seems false - Vox.com

The Trump administration has maintained from the start that it ordered the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in order to forestall an imminent threat to American lives.

It’s pretty clear this is not true, that the administration instead simply made a calculated decision to escalate American pushback on Iran as part of a larger series of back-and-forth actions that began with the US pullout from the Iran nuclear deal.

And though the deception involved has been fairly widely reported in the press, it hasn’t played a leading role in describing the escalating cycle of tensions. That’s a mistake. By killing a foreign country’s key leader, the US put itself in the position of facing retaliation, as Iran did with rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq earlier this week. Those attacks, thankfully, didn’t kill any Americans. The Trump administration, thankfully, agreed not to retaliate further, for now.

But it’s clear that members of the Trump administration are not in complete agreement on Iran policy with some influential conservatives who have long pushed for a regime change in Tehran. For an administration that wants to start a war with Iran but lacks the public backing to do so — or for a faction that wants to start a war but lacks the full support of the president — one good way to make the dream happen is to do things that provoke Iranian responses that, in turn, provoke new American responses.

A way to halt that cycle of escalation is to insist that people who want to take provocative steps give accurate information about what they are doing.

There’s substantial evidence to doubt the administration’s imminent threat message.

For example, the Pentagon’s original press release about the Soleimani operation didn’t mention it, and the immediate US reaction was to order all American civilians out of Iraq for fear of retaliation — clearly, nobody was made safer in a direct, immediate sense.

Those actions are consistent with a scenario in which Soleimani was a dangerous guy in general, and the decision to take him out was made by policymakers seeking long-term benefits at the short-term cost of elevated risk to American lives. That’s fine as far as it goes; sometimes in life you need short-term pain for long-term gain. But when someone asks you to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain, you normally ask them to explain what kind of gain they’re promising so you can consider whether it’s a fair deal.

The administration, instead, said it was heading off imminent attacks even as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conceded that he couldn’t say where or when these attacks were supposed to happen.

Pompeo insists the ideas that Soleimani presented an "imminent" threat but the administration doesn't know when or where he planned to strike are "completely consistent thoughts." pic.twitter.com/7LDFR7zcVU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 10, 2020

Similarly, senators briefed on the intelligence simply said there was no evidence of an imminent threat.

REPORTER: Why are you saying that Soleimani presented an imminent threat against embassies here but not to senators during this week's briefing?

POMPEO: We did.

REPORTER: So senators are lying?

POMPEO: I won't talk about the details. pic.twitter.com/91NoZLoJ1G

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 10, 2020

Then on Friday, John Hudson, Missy Ryan, and Josh Dawsey reported for the Washington Post that on the same day as the successful strike on Soleimani, there was a second, failed anti-Iranian operation. That operation, which the administration neglected to tell us about, targeted Abdul Reza Shahlai, described in the Post as “a financier and key commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force who has been active in Yemen.”

That this happened is a further nail in the coffin of the idea that the Soleimani strike was about disrupting an imminent threat as opposed to a broader shift in policy. That the administration kept this quiet, even as it went on a multi-day victory tour about killing Soleimani, is further confirmation that fundamentally, it is not leveling with us about what it is doing and why.

And that’s unacceptable.

Trump is, of course, notorious for lying about all kinds of things. And the national security sector, accustomed as it is to dealing in classified matters and state secrets, seems in some ways to be instinctively unbothered by deception. But in reality, this kind of lying is especially dangerous.

The public is highly motivated to protect American lives, as are members of Congress who are responsive to the public. They would be willing to go further in terms of killing foreigners to actually defend Americans in a specific way than they would to, say, advance Saudi Arabia’s regional ambitions with regard to Iran. And if Iran responds to American acts with new rounds of aggression that kill more Americans, the public is likely to support further escalation against Iran, and who knows where that will end.

This dynamic is already clearly in place in the larger question of the Iran nuclear deal, the specific elements of which Trump keeps lying about. Iran’s aggressive behavior against the US is clearly linked to Trump’s decision to abrogate the deal. Trump keeps saying he did so because Iran was cheating, which, if it were true, would be a good reason to abrogate the deal. But it wasn’t true.

Now, though, US-Iran relations have deteriorated to a point where Iran is refusing to abide by the limits in the agreement. If you lack the original context that the US pulled out of the deal despite Iranian compliance, Iran’s actions could be seen as justifying new anti-Iran moves from the US.

By the same token, killing Iranian officials could be a highly effective way of provoking Iranian retaliations that inflame American opinion and drive support for aggressive acts that the public wouldn’t otherwise get behind. The key way to break the cycle is to demand that the American government give a clear, convincing, and honest account of what it is doing and why — and to stop treating its refusal to do so as a secondary plot, when in fact it’s at the very heart of the story.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiUGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnZveC5jb20vMjAyMC8xLzExLzIxMDYwMjcxL3RydW1wLXNvbGVpbWFuaS1pbW1pbmVudC10aHJlYXQtZGlzaG9uZXN00gFdaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudm94LmNvbS9wbGF0Zm9ybS9hbXAvMjAyMC8xLzExLzIxMDYwMjcxL3RydW1wLXNvbGVpbWFuaS1pbW1pbmVudC10aHJlYXQtZGlzaG9uZXN0?oc=5

2020-01-11 14:00:00Z
52780536809258

Another earthquake hits Puerto Rico with 6.0 magnitude - CNN International

The quake was about 8 miles south of Indios, Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean Sea, the USGS said, at a depth of 6.2 miles.

Puerto Rico has been rattled by temblors throughout the week, including a 6.4 magnitude quake Tuesday that killed at least one man, destroyed homes and left most of the island without power. A 5.2 magnitude aftershock struck on Friday afternoon.

The US territory was expecting power to return by Saturday to its 3 million residents, and authorities had tweeted that it was 95% restored a couple of hours before Saturday's quake.

Parts of Lares, Adjuntas, Ponce and San German lost electrical service after Saturday's quake, the power company Electric Energy Authority said.

After the tremor, power was on to about 93% of the island, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said.

Since December 28, about 500 earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or higher have hit Puerto Rico, the USGS said.

The territory is still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiQ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMS8xMS91cy9wdWVydG8tcmljby1lYXJ0aHF1YWtlL2luZGV4Lmh0bWzSAUdodHRwczovL2FtcC5jbm4uY29tL2Nubi8yMDIwLzAxLzExL3VzL3B1ZXJ0by1yaWNvLWVhcnRocXVha2UvaW5kZXguaHRtbA?oc=5

2020-01-11 15:30:00Z
52780547135353

Puerto Rico earthquake - magnitude 6.0 earthquake hits 8 miles south of Indios, United States Geological Survey says today - live updates - CBS News

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Puerto Rico on Saturday, causing further damage along the island's southern coast where previous recent quakes have toppled homes and schools. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit 8 miles south of Indios at a shallow depth of 6 miles.

There were no immediate reports of the extent of damage or injury.

It was the strongest shake yet since a magnitude 6.4 quake struck before dawn on Tuesday, knocking out power across the island and leaving many without water. In the southwestern part of the island, that quake knocked some homes right off their foundations.

Trending News

More than 2,000 people remained in shelters as of Saturday, many fearful of returning to their homes, and others unable to because of extensive damage. 

Since December 28, there have been nearly 2,000 earthquakes in Puerto Rico, 60 of which were felt.

A Puerto Rican flag waves on top of a pile of rubble as debris is removed from a main road in Guanica, Puerto Rico on January 8, 2020, one day after an earthquake. RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNic25ld3MuY29tL25ld3MvcHVlcnRvLXJpY28tZWFydGhxdWFrZS1tYWduaXR1ZGUtNi0wLWhpdHMtdG9kYXktMjAyMC0wMS0xMS_SAVxodHRwczovL3d3dy5jYnNuZXdzLmNvbS9hbXAvbmV3cy9wdWVydG8tcmljby1lYXJ0aHF1YWtlLW1hZ25pdHVkZS02LTAtaGl0cy10b2RheS0yMDIwLTAxLTExLw?oc=5

2020-01-11 13:46:00Z
52780547135353

In Blow to Beijing, Taiwan Re-elects Tsai Ing-wen as President - The New York Times

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s voters delivered a stinging rebuke of China’s rising authoritarianism on Saturday by re-electing President Tsai Ing-wen, who vowed to preserve the island’s sovereignty in the face of Beijing’s intensifying efforts to bring it under its control.

Ms. Tsai’s victory highlighted how successfully her campaign had tapped into an electorate that is increasingly wary of China’s intentions. It also found momentum from months of protests in Hong Kong against Beijing’s encroachment on the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s freedoms.

For China’s ruling Communist Party, the outcome is a dramatic display of the power of Hong Kong’s antigovernment protest movement to influence attitudes toward the mainland in other regions the party deems critical to its interests.

China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, has warned Taiwan that unification between the sides was inevitable. His party has sought to court Taiwanese with opportunities to work in the mainland while isolating Ms. Tsai’s administration and said that China would use force, if necessary, to prevent the island from taking steps toward formal independence.

The vote, which was a reversal of Ms. Tsai’s political fortunes, suggested that Beijing’s pressure campaign had backfired. It could widen the political and cultural gulf across the Taiwan Strait and might raise the specter of armed conflict, which could have implications for the United States.

In her victory speech, Ms. Tsai called for unity as she pledged to work to defend the island’s sovereignty and improve the economy.

“With each presidential election, Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish our democratic way of life,” she said at a news conference in Taipei. “We must work to keep our country safe and defend our sovereignty.”

The vote drew a large turnout including thousands who flew home from abroad. Lines of voters snaked through schools and other public spaces. Willie Yu, 23, who cast his ballot at the Taipei Municipal Jinhua Junior High School, said he had come out to vote because “I hope Taiwan can preserve its democracy and freedom.”

Ms. Tsai’s main opponent, Han Kuo-yu, a populist mayor, conceded defeat on Saturday evening, saying he had called Ms. Tsai to congratulate her on her re-election.

“I can only say that I didn’t work hard enough to live up to everyone’s expectations,” he told his supporters.

During his campaign, Mr. Han had pledged to restore closer relations with the mainland but then found himself on the defensive because of China’s increasingly authoritarian actions. Ms. Tsai and her supporters had cited the Hong Kong protests as an ominous example of what unification on the Communist Party’s terms would portend for Taiwan’s young and vibrant, if messy at times, democratic society.

“Taiwan must be Taiwan,” Hiro Huang, a 30-year-old filmmaker, said this past week at a rally for Ms. Tsai and her party, the Democratic Progress Party. He cited national security and the protection of Taiwan’s sovereignty as the principal reasons for his vote for Ms. Tsai.

“After all, we are completely different from the system on the other side,” he added.

That much was clear in the campaign, in which the candidates offered divergent visions of Taiwan’s economic and political path and contested them openly in ways that would be unthinkable in today’s China, where the party cracks down on dissent.

Ms. Tsai defeated Mr. Han and a third candidate, James Soong. She exceeded her vote total from four years ago, surpassing eight million votes, the most garnered by any candidate since direct presidential elections began in 1996, according to unofficial results.

The victory completed a remarkable comeback for Ms. Tsai, who only a year ago appeared to have little chance of winning. The election underscored support for a distinct Taiwanese identity and the extent to which public sentiment had drifted further from the idea of a single, unified China.

China’s efforts to intimidate Taiwan allowed her to portray herself as a defender of the island’s democracy and sovereignty. In the months leading up to the vote, officials warned that China was trying to sway the outcome with online disinformation campaigns. A would-be defector detailed what he claimed were covert efforts by Chinese military intelligence to manipulate the outcome of elections in Taiwan.

Taiwan became the Republic of China after the national Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek retreated to the island following the Communist revolution in 1949. It has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, and since its transition to democracy following decades of martial law, it has developed a distinct identity that makes unification with China seem more unlikely than ever — despite Mr. Xi’s efforts to encourage it.

Mr. Xi has said that Taiwan could join the People’s Republic and still preserve its political and social freedoms under the “one country, two systems” political formula that governs Hong Kong and Macau, former colonies that returned to Chinese rule in the 1990s. Ms. Tsai has rejected the proposal.

“Young people in Hong Kong have used their lives and blood and tears to show us that ‘one country, two systems’ is not possible,” Ms. Tsai said at a large rally in Taipei on Friday night. “Tomorrow it’s the turn of our young people in Taiwan to show them that the values of democracy and freedom will overcome all difficulties.”

China’s efforts to isolate Ms. Tsai’s administration and to punish the island economically — by, forbidding tourist travel by Chinese citizens this year, for example — failed to deliver the desired outcome. Ms. Tsai’s government has presided over an improving economy, with the lowest unemployment rate in two decades (3.8 percent on average) and rising wages. She also lured manufacturers back from overseas, which might be a benefit of the trade war between the United States and China.

The question now is whether China will change its tactics, reaching out at last to Ms. Tsai’s administration or, as some hawkish voices in Beijing have suggested, turning to more forceful actions.

“Xi Jinping will be under enormous pressure at home for failing the ‘one country, two system’ model,” said Su Chi, a former legislator and government minister for the Kuomintang who served as an adviser to Mr. Han’s campaign.

He warned that Mr. Xi’s government could very likely take steps to halt what officials there view as Taiwan’s further drift away from the possibility of unification. “Short of military conflict, short of an invasion,” he said, “it will take punitive actions to teach Taiwan a lesson.”

The potential for military conflict has always hovered over the relationship. At a conference in Beijing last month, hawkish officials openly called for China to take more aggressive measures. Wang Hongguang, a retired lieutenant general in the People’s Liberation Army, declared that “the window for peaceful reunification has already closed in Taiwan.”

In her first term, Ms. Tsai sought to revive the island’s military in the face of a much larger, more ambitious project by Mr. Xi to modernize the People’s Liberation Army, particularly its ability to project naval power beyond its coastal waters. China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Shandong, has twice sailed through the Taiwan Strait during the presidential campaign.

Only days before the vote, Taiwan’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Shen Yi-ming, died when the American Black Hawk helicopter he was flying in crashed near the capital.

Ms. Tsai’s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, sought to forge closer economic and political ties with the mainland, and even met with Mr. Xi in 2015. Without a drastic shift in tactics by Beijing, the prospect of warming relations during a second Tsai term appears slim.

“This cold confrontation between the two sides of the strait will continue,” Zhu Songling, a professor at Beijing Union University, said.

Beijing has insisted that Ms. Tsai disavow the provision of her party’s charter recognizing Taiwan as an independent country as a condition for any improvement in relations. Ms. Tsai has refused, carefully maintaining a balance among her own supporters between a declaration of independence and de facto steps to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with other nations, especially the United States and Japan.

Mr. Han, who in 2018 was elected mayor of the southern city Kaohsiung, said that Ms. Tsai and her party had harmed Taiwan’s economy by pivoting away from reliance on China. At a Thursday-night rally attended by tens of thousands, he led supporters in a call and response.

“Dear friends, are you satisfied with the current situation?” he asked the crowd, which responded in unison: “We’re dissatisfied!”

At the Kuomintang’s office in Kaohsiung on Saturday, Tsai Jie-wen, a 60-year-old retired soldier, blamed the president for the chill in relations with Beijing.

“There is no diplomatic contact with the mainland China at all,” he said. “This is a very, very big loss for Taiwanese people.”

In the end, however, people seemed more worried about the fate of Taiwan’s de facto independence from China.

“Having seen what’s happening in Hong Kong, I get it: the so-called one country, two systems is a Communist lie,” said Allen Hsu, a student in Hong Kong who returned home to vote.

“I hope Taiwan doesn’t end up sharing the same fate, with my children having to take to the streets 20 years from now to oppose the Communist Party.”

Amy Chang Chien in Taiwan contributed reporting. Claire Fu and Amber Wang contributed research from Beijing.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiSGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjAvMDEvMTEvd29ybGQvYXNpYS90YWl3YW4tZWxlY3Rpb24tY2hpbmEuaHRtbNIBTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjAvMDEvMTEvd29ybGQvYXNpYS90YWl3YW4tZWxlY3Rpb24tY2hpbmEuYW1wLmh0bWw?oc=5

2020-01-11 13:19:00Z
52780545603502