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TAIPEI-Taiwan's new president took office on Tuesday with pledges to forge historic trade and transit ties with China, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory.Ma Ying-jeou, 57, the Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate and a former Taipei mayor, took over from Chen Shui-bian in a ceremony at the presidential palace, beginning a four-year term after his landslide election victory in March.The pair shook hands and walked, smiling, through a presidential office hallway rimmed with military officials and KMT leaders to an auditorium where the Taiwan flag and a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, founder of modern China, hung in the background.Ma campaigned for the presidency on a platform focused on breathing new life into Taiwan's economy and pushing Beijing for trade ties and a peace accord.China has claimed Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT Party fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan back under its control, by force if necessary."It's a big day," said Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong. "China will definitely be expressing hopes for a new beginning."In a speech later in the day, Ma is expected to offer peace to China, responding to recent conciliatory words from Chinese President Hu Jintao and suggesting that the two sides cooperate in international organizations, Taiwan newspapers said.China opposes Taiwan membership of the United Nations and other bodies that require statehood to join.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
