Taiwan's President thanks voters after winning reelection

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the island's electorate Saturday for putting "democratic values into practice" after securing more than 57% of the vote. Tsai's comfortable victory caps a remarkable comeback after devastating local election results in 2018 saw her step down as leader of the Democratic Progressive Party following its crushing defeat in races across the self-governing island.

Following Saturday's vote, Tsai addressed tensions with China over the territory's sovereignty, saying Taiwan is willing to engage with China but that China must respect the voice of Taiwan's voters.
"The results of this election carry an added significance because they have shown that when our sovereignty and democracy are threatened, the Taiwanese people will shout our determination even more loudly back," Tsai said during a news conference.

Tsai also urged China to abandon threats of force against Taiwan and said all countries should consider Taiwan "a partner, not an issue." With more than 99% of the votes counted by Taiwan's Central Election Commission, Tsai's 8 million votes surpasses Ma Ying-jeou's 2008 record of 7,658,724 votes. In Saturday's vote, Han Kuo-yu received more than 5.4 million votes, and James Soong received more than 600,000 votes.

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