TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's opposition candidate cruised to victory in the presidential election today, promising to expand economic ties with China while protecting the island from being swallowed up politically by its giant communist neighbor.

Fireworks lit up the sky over Ma Ying-jeou's headquarters. He is the former Taipei mayor.

"People want a clean government instead of a corrupt one," said Ma, also a former justice minister. "They want a good economy, not a sluggish one. They don't want political feuding. They want peace across the Taiwan Strait. No war."

Across town, a crowd gathered at the campaign office for ruling party candidate Frank Hsieh, a former premier.

"Don't cry for me today," Hsieh said. "Although we lost the election, we have a more important mission. The torch of democracy should not be extinguished."

Ma won 58 percent of the votes compared to 41.5 percent for his challenger, according to the Central Election Commission.

Both have both said they want a less confrontational relationship with China. But they were divided on how best to deal with Beijing.

Taiwan and the mainland split amid civil war in 1949, but China still considers the island to be part of its territory.

Ma has based his campaign on promises to reverse the pro-independence direction of outgoing President Chen Shui-bian and leverage China's white-hot economic boom to re-energize Taiwan's ailing high-tech economy.

He has proposed a peace treaty with Beijing that would demilitarize the Taiwan Strait, a 100-mile-wide waterway that separates the two heavily armed sides. But he has drawn the line at unification, promising it would not be discussed during his presidency.