MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The prime minister handed his resignation to Taiwan’s outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou, the China Times newspaper reported.
According to preliminary election results, Tsai Ing-wen from opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has gained 60 percent of the vote on Saturday and is set to become the first female president of Taiwan. Eric Chu Li-luan of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) got only 30 percent of the vote and has already admitted defeat.
The win of Tsai Ing-wen, who has pledged to maintain Taiwan’s status quo of de-facto independence, could lead to cooling in the relations between Beijing and Taipei.
Taiwan became self-governed in the 1940s after a civil war but China still considers it part of its territory.
The presidential election comes two months after a historic meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Taiwanese departing President Ma Ying-jeou.
In December, Director of the Chinese State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office warned that China’s relations with Taiwan are headed toward "complicated changes" in 2016.
