Following a landslide victory in the Taiwan presidential elections on Saturday, Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party warned China against attempting to suppress the country. “Our democratic system, national identity and international space must be respected. Any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-Strait relations,” she said in her first comments to the media, AFP reported.

Tsai's message came amid outrage over China forcing 16-year-old Taiwanese K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu to record a video apology after Chinese netizens did not take well to her flying a Taiwanese flag in a recent online broadcast. Referring to this case, Tsai said it had “shaken the Taiwanese society”.

The pro-independence leader won the presidency with 56.1% of the votes, according to the official Central News Agency. She became Taiwan’s first female president, after voters grew increasingly wary of the outgoing Kuomintang party’s China-friendly stance. Following the announcement of Tsai’s election, spokesman for the foreign ministry of China, Hong Lei, said the country will not tolerate any “secessionist activity of Taiwan independence”.