Hundreds of thousands of people are heading to the polls in Taiwan as the island’s local midterm elections begin on Saturday.
Local councils and city mayors are elected in elections held every four years.
But the election is also attracting global attention this year as Taiwan has become a major geopolitical flashpoint between China and the United States.
The Chinese government views Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually become part of the country.
But many Taiwanese consider their autonomous island — with its own government and a democratic system — separate.
The election also includes a referendum to lower the voting age to 18. Currently, only people over the age of 20 can vote. But more and more young people seem to be becoming politically aware, with turnout for the 2020 vote at an all-time high.
Young people have told JEE News that they are directly affected by the “China threat” – an issue that has been a major part of political discourse throughout their lives.
Two sides and two ideas
There are two main political parties in Taiwan and they have different views on China.
The Kuomintang (KMT), a party of conservative business champions, is traditionally seen as a pro-China “dove”. He has advocated economic ties with China and appears to favor alliances, although he has strongly denied being pro-China.
His main rival is the ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP), whose leader Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory in the 2020 national election. Ms Tsai has taken a tough stance against China, saying Beijing needs to respect Taiwan and Taipei will not bow to pressure.
She was re-elected in 2020 on a promise to stand up to Beijing. Locals told JEE News at the time that protests in Hong Kong and Beijing’s subsequent crackdown on civil rights had sparked concern in Taiwan.
“The DPP is experiencing a diminishing return to its traditional brand of Taiwanese nationalism,” says Wen-Ti Sing, a Taiwan political analyst in Taipei who works for the Australian National University.
He says the year was full of national security incidents that should have coincided with the DPP’s “rally around the flag” sentiment.
These national security incidents include US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan and China’s response to major military exercises, the war in Ukraine and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to progress in cross-strait relations.
“Yet virtually all polls indicate that the DPP, in contrast to its big wins in the wake of the 2014 Sunflower Movement and the 2020 presidential election following the Hong Kong crisis, continues to draw electoral support from heightened nationalist sentiment. I’m failing to translate,” he said.
Chinese interference has declined.
The government has claimed ahead of the vote that election meddling and meddling by China was at an all-time low.
Taiwan has accused China of repeated attempts to influence voters – through online disinformation campaigns, military threats and even offering cheap flights to Taiwanese living in China.
But Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Chinese interference was “not as dominant as in previous elections”.
He noted that Beijing may be “too busy dealing with its own domestic problems,” citing China’s rising Covid cases.
Race to watch
According to polls, the mayoral race is close in Taipei and Hsinchu, Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, home to the country’s world-leading semiconductor and microchip businesses.
