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TAIPEI, May 20 (Reuters) - 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 part of its territory.
Ma Ying-jeou, 57, the Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate and a former Taipei mayor, officially took over from outgoing President Chen Shui-bian in a handover ceremony at the presidential palace, beginning a four-year term after his landslide win 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."
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