Mainland keeps close eye on Taiwan mayoral elections
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The Chinese mainland will continue working with Taiwan to expand and deepen cross- Straits exchanges and cooperation, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said Sunday.
Spokeswoman Fan Liqing said the mainland had "paid close attention" to the results of the mayoral elections in the island's five cities
The mainland would steadily promote cross-Straits relations and improve the living standards of people on both sides, she said.
"We hope Taiwan society is stable and people live and work in peace," she said.
Fan said that over the past two years, improved relations had brought tangible benefits to people on both sides of the Straits, and the peaceful development of relations had become common ground.
Of the five mayoral elections, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) won three while the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won two.
KMT candidates Hau Lung-bin, Eric Chu and Jason Hu were elected as mayors for the cities of Taipei, Xinbei and Taichung respectively, while DPP candidates William Lai and Chen Chu won in the cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung respectively.
The elections for the 314 seats of the city councils in the five major cities were also held the same day.
The current Taipei county will be renamed as Xinbei city. And the expanded Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, which will include the existing three counties of the same names, will be established on December 25. By then, the five cities of Taipei, Xinbei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung will have a combined population of 13.8 million, accounting for about 60 percent of Taiwan's total population.
Sean Lien, the son of Lien Chan, the Kuomintang's honorary chairman, is in a stable condition after being wounded in a shooting on Friday as he was campaigning for the mayoral election.
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