In Taiwan, the president is elected. Many believe that the results of the vote will determine whether China decides to go to war.
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Taiwan holds presidential elections on January 13th. One of the main candidates very succinctly formulated the significance of the vote: in his opinion, the results of the elections directly determine whether China decides to launch a full-scale invasion. If armed conflict breaks out, it will cost humanity up to 10% of global GDP.
Taiwan has already begun counting votes following its general elections. Pro-Western candidate Lai Qingde is leading the presidential race, Bloomberg reports.
Qingde, 64, is a candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, ready to pursue tough policies to achieve Taiwan’s independence from China and close cooperation with Western partners. According to the agency, 43.1% of voters currently support him.
36.1% for opposition candidate Hou Yui, who advocates normalizing relations with China without reunification.
Ke Wenzhe of the Taiwan People’s Party is third with 20.8% of the votes. He advocates a restrained dialogue with Beijing to avoid a possible war.
Who is chosen
There are three candidates in the election. One of them is confident that on Saturday the Taiwanese will choose between peace and war
The President is the key figure in Taiwan’s political system, the head of state and commander-in-chief. The president (and the vice-president running alongside him) is elected by direct voting in one round; to win, you need to get a majority of votes.
There are three candidates in the election. And, if the pre-election rhetoric is to be believed, none of them are going to radically reform relations with Beijing (in any direction).
The ruling PPP nominated the current vice president and party leader Lai Qingde (in one of the election videos, the current president Tsai Ing-wen hands him the steering wheel of a car with the words “drive better than me”). In 2017, Lai Qingde called himself a “pragmatic fighter for Taiwanese independence,” but six years later he said that he did not see the need for a formal declaration of independence from China, because “Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent country called the Republic of China.”
Lai Qingde, 64, plans to maintain the status quo with Beijing while “strengthening the military capabilities” of Taiwan until “China renounces the use of force.” He also expects Beijing to be more cautious if there are more countries recognizing that Taiwan is not part of the People’s Republic of China. Currently, there are 13 such states, and in recent years their number has been declining due to pressure from the PRC.
Running from the Kuomintang (and although the party lost the last parliamentary elections, it controls the majority of local bodies across the island) is 66-year-old Hou Yui, the mayor of New Taipei. This is a specific municipality surrounding the capital Taipei. If New Taipei is considered a separate city, it is the most populated city in Taiwan, with more than four million people living there.
During the campaign, Hou said that on January 13, the Taiwanese would go to the polls between peace and war. He is confident that only more active diplomatic and economic interaction with Beijing (for example, in tourism) can prevent a full-scale invasion – and he intends to develop it.
Another candidate is 64-year-old Ke Wenzhe, a former mayor of Taipei who represents the populist Taiwan People’s Party (established in 2019). Ke insists on reconsidering the 1992 consensus and criticizes the position of both opponents. He doesn’t like the Kuomintang for its “excessive softness” in its dialogue with the PRC, and he doesn’t like the PPP for its “radicalism.” He is confident that if he wins, he will be able to find something in between these options.
It is unclear who will win the elections on January 13. According to local laws, public opinion polls cannot be published within 10 days before the elections. According to polls as of January 3, PPP candidate Lai Qingde was supported by about 36% of respondents, Hou Yu by 31%, and Ke Wenzhe by 24%.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.