Taiwan's China-sceptic ruling party opts for moderate new leader

Taiwan's ruling party elected a new chairman on Sunday, choosing a moderate to replace the post vacated by President Tsai Ing-wen after a recent electoral mauling, in a vote closely watched by China and the United States.

Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a 2016 landslide poll, sweeping away a government that had built much closer ties to China over the previous decade.

The result rattled Beijing because Tsai refuses to acknowledge that the self-ruled island is part of "one China".

Beijing cut communication with her administration, stepped up military drills, poached several of Taiwan's dwindling diplomatic allies and started economically pressuring the island.

But in November, Tsai's DPP suffered a string of defeats in local elections, fuelled by a backlash over her domestic reforms and deteriorating economic ties with China, Taiwan's largest market.

Tsai resigned the party chairmanship but stayed on as president, staying above the fray in the vote to replace her.

On Sunday evening the DPP announced it had chosen Cho Jung-tai, a moderate consensus candidate backed by major party figures.

He comfortably defeated a bid from an openly pro-independence rival who had called for Tsai not to stand again in next year's presidential election.

J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based expert with the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute, said the vote bolstered Tsai's chances of standing for a second term.

"Party members voted for continuity," he told AFP, adding that other countries "will also be reassured." "It certainly makes it much more likely that she will be on the ticket for re-election."