Taiwan new President Tsai Ing-wen(R) waves as outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou (L) looks on during the inauguration ceremony in Taipei on May 20, 2016. Credit: AFP/Sam Yeh

BEIJING — China said Saturday  that communications with Taiwan had been suspended after the island’s new government failed to acknowledge the concept that there is only “one China”.

Relations between the two sides have grown increasingly frosty since President Tsai Ing-wen won Taiwan’s leadership by a landslide in January and took office in May, ending eight years of rapprochement.

Beijing and Taipei have held regular, official communications since 2014, but that has now stopped, according to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.

“The bilateral communication mechanism has been suspended,” TAO spokesman An Fengshan said on its website.

Although Taiwan is self-ruling after splitting with the mainland in 1949 following a civil war, it has never formally declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Beijing is highly suspicious of Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which replaced the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party in government, is traditionally pro-independence and has warned her against any attempt at a breakaway.

Beijing said it had cut contact […]