As DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen said in a televised debate on January 2, “What people have felt most about President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration was the huge distance between the people and the government”.
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“Taiwan and China, we’re brothers for sure, but we’ve already divided into two families”, said prominent Taiwanese rapper Dwagie, who turned up for a Tsai campaign pitstop at an ornate ancient temple in Tainan with a few friends.
In the end, any policy that facilitates people-to-people exchanges will promote mutual understanding between ASEAN and Taiwan – a necessary step for Taiwan to effectively “go south” and join the regional integration. Taiwan relies on the mainland market to absorb about 30 percent of its exports, while Chinese companies, including some with ties to the military, are hotly pursuing stakes in Taiwanese high-tech firms.
When Ma met Chinese president Xi Jinping for the first time in November 2015 in Singapore, Lim told The Guardian, that Taiwanese were disappointed. “Even the younger generations recognize opportunities exist in mainland China”, he said, urging the DPP to come clean on the pros and cons of all aspects of the Taipei-Beijing relationship.
19 million of Taiwan’s 23 million people are eligible to vote.
Presidential elections in Taiwan are conducted according to the principles of universality, fairness, directness, secrecy and plurality.
Among them is Joshua Wong, a leader of the 2014 Hong Kong street protests known as the Umbrella Movement.
Poised as one of the most prominent female leaders of the Chinese-speaking world since the Qing dynasty Empress Dowager Cixi, however, has not convinced a wide swathe of domestic constituents and foreign allies that she’ll steer a stable course in ties with Beijing. “The third rotation of power should further deepen democracy in Taiwan, fuel economic development and, most importantly, allow people to regain trust in politics”.
What they find is a place quite familiar – in terms of language, cuisine and some customs – but radically different too. If it takes power, the DPP’s ability to pursue that goal will be limited by China, which has a de facto veto on Taiwan’s participation in worldwide agreements, said Jonathan Sullivan, an associate professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. “My sense was that it would be more active or rowdy. We insist on the things that are right, but we will reflect on our mistakes”. It was the Communists’ bitter enemy during the civil war, but is now China’s best hope, and perhaps only hope, of peacefully reunifying with Taiwan.
Who is running for this Legislative Council election? In fact, she has refused to acknowledge the 1992 Consensus as the sole basis of Taiwan-China ties, referring to it as just one of many options that also include One China, One Taiwan (the two states theory). The missile tests were created to rattle the Taiwanese electorate and send a message that President Lee Teng-hui’s subtle drift away from the One-China policy was not to be tolerated.
But individual travelers can still get in.
Blackfriars Asset’s Tony Hann expects the DPP to prevail in the elections and says a stocks recovery will depend on how the new leadership manages its relations with China and whether there will be recovery in demand for technology products. “If mainland China democratizes someday, we could consider a tie-up”, he added.
In the corporate world, stereotyping also plays a damaging role, with women held back from promotion because of fears that they’ll stall their careers to have children. Taxi driver Huang Chin-lung said he does not think these less-established parties can be trusted. Despite the DPP’s less accommodating policy inclinations, pragmatic considerations will likely force the DPP and Beijing to build reliable channels for dialogue immediately after the election. “It’s a psychological boost”. And for the legislative elections in Taipei and Taichung, the DPP has formed coalitions with the new parties.
Both the Communists and the Nationalists deemed the separation temporary and agreed that Taiwan and the mainland were part of the same entity, but disagreed on which Chinese government was the rightful ruler.
A large KMT majority has traditionally dominated Taiwan’s political landscape.
“It will be a historic change but we still need to be very careful”.
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While the Nationalists have attacked Tsai and the DPP as a grave threat given the party’s independence-leaning stand, some say she could confound her critics. “I believe our proposals have broad appeal for supporters in both Pan-Green and Pan-Blue camps”. But he professed an indifference to the entire process. “The problem is whether or not people’s hearts are in it for Taiwan”, he said.
