Now, China's top diplomat has warned that any steps towards Taiwan's independence will be severely punished. It follows the election of William Lai as the island's new President. He's viewed by Beijing as a dangerous separatist. Speaking during a visit to Egypt, China's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, had this to say.

Taiwan's election is a regional affair within China. No matter what the results of the election are, they cannot change the basic fact that there is only one China, and Taiwan is a part of it. Taiwan has never been a country. It wasn't in the past, and it certainly won't be in the future.

Meanwhile, China has accused the US of sending a gravely wrong signal to those pushing for Taiwan's independence. Us Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, congratulated President Elect William Lai on Saturday. That message was seen by Beijing as a violation of Washington's commitment to maintain only unofficial ties with Taiwan. For the very latest, let's take you live to Taipei and the BBC's Steve Lai. Steve, good to see you. What's the mood in Taipei this morning?

Yes, so those words of congratulations from Anthony Blinken have been backed up with some actions as well. Just yesterday, a delegation of US former senior officials arrived in Taipei, and they're expected to meet with various leaders here today. We'll have to wait and see what comes out of those meetings and what words get shared between the two of those parties. In the meantime, let's get more reaction to what we've seen over the weekend's elections with Sharouh Shirley Lynch. He's a research professor at the University of Virginia. Shirley, thanks for your time today. Firstly, these election results show that Taiwan will actually have a weaker parliament and a weaker for the next four years, given the split of how the parties have divided up the parliamentary seats. What do you make of that? And Particularly now that TPP looks like they could hold some leverage in parliament.

Yeah, I think, Steve, the election was very much as expected in terms of the presidential election. But what was surprising was the Parliament. For the Parliament, I think it's pretty clear the Taiwanese people had a different idea of the leaders and what party they support. There was a split in the sense that people voted for one presidential candidate but didn't vote for their party. In the case of both DPP and KMT, the biggest winner was the Taiwan People's Party, which won eight seats, whereas the KMT and DPP each had 52 and 51 seats, respectively.

It seems strange to say that with eight seats, they're the big winners in this election. So what sway will they have?

Well, with basically a 51 seat for the DPP, the President really can't count on his party to pass bills, which requires 57 seats, a majority. What this really means is that Both sides could work with a smaller party, the DPP, run by the former mayor of Taipei, Koenjia, and he may have a deciding vote on everything from defense bill to domestic reforms on housing energy policy. But very importantly, this means foreign policy will take some time actually to make decisions on.

Yeah, it seems like it could complicate things somewhat. How will Washington and Beijing be able to interact with this new parliament, with this new government?

Well, as you said, Jim Hadley and... Sorry, Stephen Hadley and Jim Steinberg are already here in Taipei. So I think the reassurance that United States wants to give Taipei and Beijing at the same time is already underway. I think Beijing will probably wait until the US presidential election to step up the heat to intensify the pressure. But the pressure has been on, and I predict it will be quite stable. But this new government Which the new parliament will start February 1. The President is inaugurated on May 20th. I think for some time, actually, consensus will take a lot more time to build. The US and China will have to expect a lot more delay in anything that actually divides the people, which are most issues.

You mentioned that the US election. Beijing often takes a long-term view when it comes to its relationships with countries. How will the US election, depending on which way it goes in November, have a bearing on the China-Taiwan US dynamic?

Of course, Beijing would like to see a firmer US government that sticks to the one China policy. While you're thinking about strategic ambiguity, China would like the US to be firmer about stopping Taiwan from being too proactive on safeguarding autonomy. And to be honest, if you look at this election, one big lesson, Steve, of this lesson of this election is that the Taiwanese people are moving the political parties more towards the center. The KMT tried to stay away from talking about China. The DPP tried to stay away from talking about identity. And the TPP says, We're good for everything. So what you can see is everyone is trying to say, We are less extreme than you think, and we're not pro-China or we're not pro-US. And I think everyone has also affirmed Taiwan's international relations or foreign policy direction, which is, Taiwan needs to connect with the world and needs a better relationship with China. For that, everyone split their votes so that the government won't move forward much.

With that moderation to the middle, the separation of votes which could slow down things in Parliament. That almost helps guide Taiwan towards the status quo or how things have been. So you're optimistic for Taiwan's future going for the next few years, that relationships with both sides could, by default of stagnation or stalemate in Parliament, actually help Taiwan's relationships with the two part, too, with the US and China.

I think, Steve, you're very optimistic. I would like to agree with that, and I partly do, because I think when things don't move so quickly, it actually is there's a possibility to try to learn how to create consensus. What's really difficult is in this delme, you can't solve the real problem. And this time, while China is front and center at every national election, what's really important is 30 % of the voters under 40, they wanted a third way. And a lot of them gave their votes to the TPP to focus on domestic policy. They want to have affordable housing, better energy mix towards net zero, and reduce inequality. For all of these things that need real policy, we actually need a more efficient parliament. So for this reason, the election means we'll have a more divided people. And I think also Beijing contributes to that divideness, and in some ways, so does the United States.