TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Academics from China are urging Beijing to adjust its strategy towards Taiwan to focus on winning over the hearts of young Taiwanese after the landslide victory of pro-independence incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Participants at a Sunday (Jan. 12) seminar held by the People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), called for better management of risk factors in the cross-strait relationship. They also made the case for a recalibrated, incentive-oriented approach towards the Taiwanese people, and the younger generation in particular, so as to “boost their China-centered sense of identity,” reported CNA.

Attending scholars described Tsai’s win not as a vote of confidence but a “choice people had to make due to the successful fear-mongering campaign mounted by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).”

Meanwhile, the official CCP newspaper ran an opinion piece on Monday (Jan. 13) reassuring the Chinese people of what it claimed to be the inevitable outcome of unification with Taiwan despite the election results.

The article, which denounced the presidential election as the “ugliest in the history of Taiwan,” launched into a tirade against Tsai and her party over the factors behind the victory. It said Tsai had abused administrative resources, treated her erstwhile rival Vice President-elect Lai (賴清德) mercilessly in the DPP primary, relied on online trolling, dolled out empty promises, used the U.S. as a pawn, and rammed through a law targeting Taiwanese who visit China.

The article also roasted the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, which favors closer ties with China, for its ineffectual electioneering tactics and infighting. It went on to say that the results of the election will not address the conflict inherent in Taiwan’s economy and among its people and that the DPP will ultimately suffer for souring cross-strait relations, which will see the island fall.