Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan's main opposition party will become the island's first female president in a landslide victory over the ruling Kuomintang Saturday, as voters turned their backs on closer China ties.

KMT candidate Eric Chu conceded defeat in a disastrous rout for the party, addressing tearful crowds at the party's headquarters in Taipei.

When voters go to the polls in Taiwan Saturday it will be the latest step in the island's fraught evolution into an outspoken democracy and a thorn in China's side.

China and Taiwan have been locked in hostility for decades after the island split from the mainland in 1949, following a civil war.

China has summoned the U.S. envoy to protest Washington's sale of warships to Taiwan, as part of a massive $1.8 billion arms package, Beijing said Thursday.

Taipei will get an array of missiles, amphibious assault vehicles and two frigates in the latest deal, which comes as the United States looks to shore up its Asian friends and allies in the face of growing Chinese assertiveness.

Taiwan's president Thursday defended a historic summit with China as the first step to normalizing relations between the leaders, as opponents wary over a rapprochement after decades of hostility accused him of selling out the island.

Ma Ying-jeou will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore on Saturday, in a dramatic recognition of a seven-year period of warming relations which has raised fears self-ruled Taiwan's security may be at stake.

Super typhoon Dujuan has killed three people and left more than 300 injured in Taiwan, authorities said Tuesday after it swept across the island before making landfall in eastern China.

It hit the Chinese coastal city of Putian by Tuesday afternoon, state news agency Xinhua said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

Thousands of tourists were evacuated from islands off Taiwan Sunday as super typhoon Dujuan gathered strength on its approach to the island.

Taiwan's weather bureau upgraded Dujuan to a "strong typhoon" -- it's top category -- on Sunday evening as the storm approached the island's east.

Rescuers are searching for four missing fishermen after a Taiwanese boat collided with a huge cargo ship and capsized off the island's north coast, killing five, officials said Monday. 

The bodies of the Taiwanese skipper, three Chinese and one Indonesian crew members have already been recovered after the collision on Friday, and authorities have launched an investigation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded his country as a major power and a force for world peace Thursday as he presided over a spectacular military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

With concerns rife over China's rise, Xi announced that the People's Liberation Army -- the world's largest military -- would be reduced by 300,000 personnel, although the defense ministry said the cuts would mainly fall on outdated units and non-combat staff.

A Taiwanese district court Tuesday found a Chinese man guilty of recruiting local military officers to spy for Beijing and sentenced him to four years in jail.

Zhen Xiaojiang, who served in China's army, was charged in January with violating national security law along with six Taiwanese military officials.

Two people were killed while thousands were evacuated as powerful typhoon Goni approached the Philippines and Taiwan on Friday, authorities said.

In the Philippine highland town of Itogon, two construction workers died after a landslide buried their roadside tent in rocks and mud. Close to 400 people in flood-prone towns were moved to shelters, police and disaster officials said.