Xi’s Tough Talk on Taiwan Backfires, as Tsai Support Surges

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to push Taiwanese closer to unification with a new year speech mixing carrots and sticks. That hasn’t panned out. Instead, his independence-leaning Taiwanese counterpart, Tsai Ing-wen, has enjoyed a surge in support following a brutal drubbing of her political party in local elections last year, according…