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00:00 Long after those election results, the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council said,
00:05 I quote, "Taiwan is China's Taiwan. This election cannot change the basic pattern and the development
00:11 of cross-strait relations." And since, Beijing has been issuing warning messages to foreign
00:16 officials who have congratulated Lai Ching-de for his win on Saturday evening. France's foreign
00:21 ministry was actually one of those, for example, and the Chinese embassy in Paris issued a statement
00:27 saying, I quote, "The Chinese province of Taiwan just organized local elections for local leaders.
00:33 These elections are domestic issues for which any irresponsible comments from outsiders are
00:39 unacceptable." Unquote. The Chinese foreign ministry also complained when the US's Secretary
00:44 of State, Antony Blinken, also congratulated Lai, warning that their red line must not be crossed
00:50 and describing it as a gravely wrong signal. Now, these reactions are actually what you would expect
00:57 from Beijing and are rather muted. The diplomatic score that took place between Presidents Xi Jinping
01:03 and Joe Biden seems to be holding on. Now, it doesn't mean that Beijing won't reiterate a show
01:08 of force in the coming days and weeks towards Taipei and towards the rest of the world, perhaps
01:13 in the run-up to Lai Ching-de's inauguration and/or after the event, also depending on what the
01:19 the President-elect says during his inauguration speech.