The election on Saturday of Taiwan's vice president and candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Lai Ching-te, to be the island's next leader highlights Taiwanese voters' support for political continuity, but may add fresh uncertainty into already frosty relations with China.
Lai's vice president-elect, Hsiao Bi-khim, is on Beijing's sanctions list. With Lai's win, tensions seem poised to rise. But analysts don't think Beijing wants to provoke a war at this point, and will carefully process early signals from the newly elected Lai. "I think we're in a wait-and-see [mode]," said Margaret Lewis, a professor of law at Seton Hall University, who was in Taiwan to watch the process.
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