Cairo (AFP) – After Taiwan elected outspoken pro-sovereignty candidate Lai Ching-te as president on 13 January, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warns that any moves towards independence for the island, which China claims as part of its territory, would be “harshly punished”. Lai has vowed to defend the self-ruled island and key US ally from China’s “intimidation”, and his election sets the stage for four more years increasingly frosty relations between Taipei and Beijing.
