After the historic meeting between leaders of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday, shrieking cries from two ladies were widely noticed. Clara Chou, a Taiwanese television personality, screamed a dozen times during the press conference and questioned Ma as to whether he had mentioned the "Republic of China" (ROC) during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Tsai Ing-wen, leadership candidate from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, lashed out Saturday at Ma in a statement for his not raising Taiwan's democracy, freedom, and the existence of the ROC during the meeting, and more importantly, Taiwan residents' rights to free choice.

Tsai has made gaffes. She always takes an ambiguous attitude toward the policy on the Chinese mainland. The Xi-Ma meeting pushes forward the cross-Straits relationship and has been applauded globally. Yet Tsai, appearing wrathful, voiced harsh words that tried to belittle the meeting and exposed her support for "Taiwan Independence."

As one of the biggest outcomes of the meeting, the two leaders reiterated their adherence to the 1992 Consensus in an amicable atmosphere and showed respect for each other in consideration of the big picture. On this occasion, Tsai's demand has revealed her narrow mind and extreme political selfishness of putting votes above peaceful development across the Straits. From the mainland's perspective, there can be more content to respond to Tsai's provocation, which includes the Anti-Secession Law and the principle that the future of Taiwan must be decided by 1.3 billion Chinese, including those in Taiwan.

As Tsai is widely projected to win the island's leadership election next year, her Saturday statement has prompted the mainland to become strongly defensive against her possible policy if taking office. She has posed new challenges to the cross-Straits relationship.

If Tsai gets elected and deals with the cross-Straits relations as she did on Saturday, Chinese society must face up to her challenges and the relations across the Straits have to withstand the uncertainties thereby caused. But this is no big deal. Compared with Chen Shui-bian, Tsai is faced with a stronger mainland and the world's full recognition of the one-China policy, with room for maneuver intensely squeezed.

If she takes office, Tsai will see her "Taiwan Independence" policy responded to by powerful countermoves from the mainland. She may have a quicker and uglier defeat if she doesn't learn from Chen's being crushed.

As the rest of the world is heightening ties with the mainland, it will be an inappropriate action if Tsai leads Taiwan to do the exact opposite.

Becoming closer has been a trend for the cross-Straits relationship since the 1980s. While the Xi-Ma meeting will be long-remembered, the carping noise from Tsai and Chou will finally be gone with the wind.