Mainland experts on Taiwan studies do not expect cross-Straits relations to drastically worsen despite major gains for the island's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Saturday's "legislative" elections.

But they warned that the party's electoral victory may make pro-independence forces on the island feel freer to influence Taiwan's mainland policy to further strain cross-Straits ties.

Li Jiaquan, a researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday: "The results may temporarily cloud the relations between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, but no dramatic change in the basic pattern of cross-Straits ties is expected."

Results announced late on Saturday gave the Democratic Progressive Party 87 seats in the "parliamentary" election, more than any other party.

The former ruling Kuomintang lost its majority in the "Legislative Yuan" for the first time after it won just 68 seats in the new 225-member chamber.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union - the Democratic Progressive Party's fledgling pro-independence ally - won an impressive 13 seats while the People First Party, a Kuomintang offshoot, also enjoyed major success, winning 46 seats compared with 20 in the old 218-seat chamber.

One of the remaining seats went to the New Party, another KMT splinter group.

The previously unknown My Party also won a seat, as did nine independents.

Li said that, though the Democratic Progressive Party's electoral triumph makes it comfortable in the "legislature," the party still cannot afford to act tough against Beijing by disrupting the status quo.

"One thing is for sure - the DPP, no matter how hard it may try, will never change the fact that there is only one China in the world," he told China Daily.

The researcher described any trouble that may arise from the party's win as nothing but "a storm in a teacup."

"No matter what happens, the DPP will go nowhere if it sticks to a pro-independence stance," Li stressed.

Echoing Li's views, Fan Xizhou, director of the Taiwan Research Institute under Xiamen University, said it is "totally impossible for Taiwan to walk out of the existing one-China framework" despite the electoral result.

Fan said there was little chance of the DPP taking extreme steps towards full independence, which could potentially have triggered a war across the Taiwan Straits.

He said that the pro-independence forces on the island cannot determine the development of cross-Straits relations.

However, the professor warned against increased tension in cross-Straits ties. He said the reduced presence of the opposition parties in Taiwan's "parliament" may make the DPP administration led by Chen Shui-bian more determined to reject the one-China principle.

(China Daily December 3, 2001)