Beijing’s Taiwan office deputy head under investigation

A deputy head of the Chinese Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office has been placed under investigation for apparent corruption as Beijing’s policies toward the island come under renewed scrutiny.
The ruling Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a brief statement that Gong Qinggai was suspected of “serious violations of discipline,” which is usually a euphemism for graft. No other details were given.
The announcement came three days after Taiwanese voters elected an independence-­leaning president in a landslide, although there was no indication of any connection between the two events.
Multiple online reports speculated that Gong’s problems related to his hiding of personnel assets and feuding within his family. However, President Xi Jinping is believed to be deeply unsatisfied with the office’s failure to obtain results in Beijing’s quest to win over the Taiwanese to China’s goal of political unification.
Rumors have also long circulated about the office facilitating private deals between Taiwanese and Chinese businesses, side-
stepping the sort of checks usually required for approval.
Taiwanese voters on Saturday elected Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party as president following the eight-year term of Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party.
Skepticism over Ma’s push for closer economic ties with China was a major factor in the result, with young voters in particular fearful of an erosion of the island’s competitiveness and their future earning potential.
The sides are now entering in a wait-and-see period in the months before Tsai, Taiwan’s first female president, is inaugurated in May.
She has pledged no change in the status quo of de facto independence, but has refused to accept Beijing’s “one China principle” asserting that the island and mainland are part of a single Chinese nation. AP