Mar 22, 2008 6:20 pm US/Pacific
Bush: Taiwan Is 'Beacon' To Asia, World
Taiwan's Ruling Party Loses Presidential Election
TAIPEI, Taiwan (CBS News) ―
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Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party addresses his supporters after winning the presidential elections on March 22, 2008, in Taipei, Taiwan.
Andrew Wong/Getty Images
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Winning Kuomintang (KMT) party presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, center, flanked by his wife Chou Mei-ching and running mate Vincent Siew, celebrates victory outside the KMT headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan on March 22, 2008.
Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
President Bush says China and Taiwan have a new chance to peacefully settle their differences now that Taiwan has elected a new president.
Opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou won 58 percent of the vote in Saturday's election, and is promising better ties with China. Bush says the election shows the "strength and vitality" of Taiwan's democracy, a democracy he calls a "beacon" to Asia and the world.
He says it's Taiwan's and Beijing's responsibility to "build the essential foundations for peace and stability" through dialogue and without unilateral action.
Fireworks lit up the sky over Ma Ying-jeou's headquarters Saturday, and cheering supporters put up victory posters before the former Taipei mayor climbed on stage and declared victory.
"People want a clean a government instead of a corrupt one," said Ma, also a former justice minister. "They want a good economy, not a sluggish one. They don't want political feuding. They want peace across the Taiwan Strait. No war."
Across town, a crying crowd gathered at the campaign office for ruling party candidate Frank Hsieh, a former premier.
"Don't cry for me today," Hsieh said in his concession speech. "Although we lost the election, we have a more important mission. The torch of democracy should not be extinguished."
Ma and Hsieh have both said they want a less confrontational relationship with China. But they were divided on how best to deal with Beijing, which presents both a huge opportunity for the island's powerful business community and a looming threat to its evolving democracy.
Ma has based his campaign on promises to reverse the pro-independence direction of outgoing President Chen Shui-bian and leverage China's white-hot economic boom to re-energize Taiwan's ailing high-tech economy.
He has proposed a formal peace treaty with Beijing that would demilitarize the Taiwan Strait, 100-mile-wide waterway that separates the two heavily armed sides. But he has drawn the line at unification, promising it would not be discussed during his presidency.
Economically, he wants to lower barriers to Taiwanese investment on the mainland - it already amounts to more than $100 billion - and begin direct air and maritime links between the sides.
Ma is particularly interested in expanding the China-Taiwan high-tech connection, which every year sends billions of dollars' worth of Taiwan's advanced components to low-cost assembly plants along China's rapidly developing east coast.
Taiwan and the mainland split amid civil war in 1949, but China still considers the island to be part of its territory. Beijing has threatened to attack if Taiwan rejects unification and seeks a permanent break.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
CBS News Interactive: Taiwan
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