THE Chinese mainland’s Taiwan affairs authority has reiterated the importance of adhering to the 1992 Consensus after Tsai Ing-wen, candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was elected Taiwan leader Saturday.

    In a three-way race to become Taiwan’s next leader, Tsai defeated rivals Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Eric Chu and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong.

    A person in charge of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said in a statement released late Saturday that the mainland’s major principles and policies concerning Taiwan are “consistent and clear, and will not change with the results of Taiwan elections.”

    In the past eight years, on the political basis of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing “Taiwan independence,” both sides have jointly explored a path for the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relations, set up an institutional framework for exchanges and cooperation, and maintained peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the statement said.

    The mainland is willing to enhance communication and exchanges with all political parties and groups that recognize the principle that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, the statement said.

    Earlier in a separate statement, the Foreign Ministry urged the international community to continue to abide by the one-China principle.

    Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said the result of Taiwan leadership elections will not change the basic fact or the consensus of the international community.

    The Chinese Government sticks to the one-China principle, opposes “Taiwan independence,” “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan,” he said. On the key issue of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese Government is rock-firm, he said.

    Taiwan residents began voting in the island’s leadership and legislature elections at 8 a.m. Saturday and the polls closed at 4 p.m. Tsai led Chu by about 3 million votes in the poll, according to the island’s election commission.

    Tsai and her running mate Chen Chien-jen got more than 6.89 million ballots, or 56.1 percent of the votes, whereas Chu and his running mate Wang Ju-hsuan got more than 3.81 million ballots, or 31 percent of the votes.

    PFP Chairman James Soong and his running mate Hsu Hsin-ying got nearly 1.58 million ballots, or 12.8 percent of the votes.

    In a speech at the Kuomintang headquarters in Taipei earlier, Eric Chu acknowledged his failure, saying he would take responsibility and resign from the post of KMT chairman.

    (Xinhua)