Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/28
By: Tzeng Yi-shiuan and Evelyn Kao 

Paris, Nov. 27 (CNA) The major defeat suffered by Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in last Saturday’s local government elections should not be interpreted as a vote for rapprochement with China, a French specialist in Beijing-Taipei relations said Tuesday.

The elections were primarily local and involved mainly local issues, said Stephane Corcuff, a French scholar of Taiwan studies at Sciences Po Lyon, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde.

“The Taiwanese did not vote for rapprochement with China,” he said. “They were not asked to comment on (President) Tsai Ing-wen’s Chinese policy.”

Corcuff made the comment when asked whether he thought the DPP’s defeat in the local elections meant that Taiwanese wanted closer links with China.
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