China Must Try to Co-exist With Democratic Taiwan, Tsai Says
- President Tsai Ing-wen calls on Xi for dialogue as equals
- China says relations with Taiwan are ‘complicated and grim’
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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged China’s Xi Jinping to “find a way to co-exist” with the island’s democratic government as she started her second term -- a plea for compromise that was quickly rejected by Beijing.
Tsai, 63, riding high with a record approval rating and a surge in U.S. support, issued one of her most forceful calls yet for an equal dialogue with Beijing after being sworn in a pared-down inauguration ceremony Wednesday. Xi’s government cut off direct communications across the Taiwan Strait during Tsai’s first four years in office, citing her refusal to accept the notion that both sides belong to “one China.”