16 March 2016, 11:45 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Tsai Ing-wen, the chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was sworn in as the new president of Taiwan, the first woman to hold the post, media reported Friday.
On January 16, Tsai won the presidential elections in Taiwan securing over 56 percent of the vote.
According to the BBC, citing the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry, nearly 700 heads of state, diplomats and dignitaries would be attending the ebemt.
Tsai has pledged to maintain Taiwan’s status quo of de-facto independence, further straining Beijing-Taipei ties.
Taiwan became self-governed in the 1940s after a civil war, but China still considers it to be part of its territory. The dispute arose after nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated to the island of Taiwan, as the Communist forces gained control of mainland China, in 1949.
