The boisterous democracy is likely to push back against Beijing by bringing scholar-turned-politician Tsai Ing-wen to power, unseating the China-friendly ruling party.
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But fears about the economic threat posed by China, from the mainland’s rising technology capabilities to its large pool of college graduates willing to work for less, have pushed many Taiwanese voters toward the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and fueled a “Sunflower Movement” of student protesters who oppose closer relations with the mainland.
Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT) chairman Eric Chu (R) and his wife Kao Wan-ch … Parliamentary polls are also being held and if the DPP wins those too, Tsai will get an even stronger mandate. “I want the whole world to know that we are Taiwan, we are not China”, she said.
“She said the future of Taiwan needs to be determined by the 23 million people living there and not by any particular party”, Wu said.
Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen greets supporters at a rally in Taipei.
He resigned to run in the 2010 race for mayor of New Taipei City surrounding the capital, defeating Tsai Ing-wen by 52.6 percent to 47.3 percent. “You know her position on cross-strait ties – if she can not properly handle the issues and tensions escalate, no-one will benefit”, said shop owner Yang Chin-chun, 78. Voting began Saturday in Taiwan’s presidential election in which the…
Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is an island off the southeast coast of China between the East and South China Seas.
After decades of enmity, current KMT president Ma Ying-jeou has overseen a dramatic rapprochement with China since coming to power in 2008. She had about 60 percent of votes while Chu had about 30 percent.
She has not made her stance towards China clear, however the party is, historically, pro-independence and does not recognise the two nations as part of “one China”.
China and Taiwan parted ways in 1949, when the Nationalist Party (KMT) was forced to retreat to Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party.
At stake are relations with an ascendant and increasingly assertive China under President Xi Jinping. There has also been widespread discontent over the dramatic decrease in economic growth in the country over the past year, with wages stagnating and housing prices shooting up.
China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent entity, which became self-governed in the 1940s after a civil war, citing the one-China principle agreed to in a provisional 1992 consensus.
However, he said that Tsai would be the first whose father or husband hadn’t already served in a major role in national politics.
Analysts also agree there will not be any immediate backlash from China, as alienating Taiwan would play against Beijing’s ultimate aim of reunification.
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– China has deployed more than 1,000 short- and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as cruise missiles in coastal areas facing the Taiwan Strait, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry. “We should all support them for loving Taiwan”.
