China threatens Taiwan with further trade sanctions as elections approach

News Snapshot:

A bus in New Taipei City with an advertisement of Lai Ching-te, the Taiwanese presidential candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images Taiwan could face further trade sanctions from Beijing if the ruling party on the island maintained a pro-independence stance, the Chinese government warned on Wednesday. Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, blamed President Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for recent cross-strait trade tensions. “Currently Taiwan is facing a crossroads. As long as we adhere to the ‘1992 Consensus’ and oppose so-called ‘Taiwan independence,’ cross-straits relations can return to...