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Lai’s election victory gave an unprecedented third presidential term to the DPP, but his room for manoeuvre is likely to be limited. “William Lai has spent the past two and half years trying to convince the world he is going to be a Tsai Ing-Wen 2.0 figure,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. “There’s reason …

As Taiwan gears up for a crucial election this weekend, the island is grappling with two major controversies that have cast a shadow over the democratic process. In the final days of campaigning, issues surrounding the outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen and an independent candidate, Ma Chih-wei, have stirred significant debate and raised concerns about foreign interference. Controversy 1: President Tsai …

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Taiwan President Tsai’s controversial trip to Central America

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is scheduled to depart on a 10-day tour of Central America with stopovers in the US. There is an unspoken rule that Taiwanese presidents do not make official visits to the US, or travel to the capital Washington, DC, but “transit stops” have become increasingly elaborate in recent years, said Kwei-Bo Huang, an associate professor of …

Concerns about threats from rival China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, took a backseat to more local issues in the elections. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as head of the governing Democratic Progressive Party after her strategy to frame local elections as showing defiance to China’s rising bellicosity failed to pay off and win public support. China’s Taiwan …

Polls opened in Taiwan on Saturday in local elections that President Tsai Ing-wen has framed as being about sending a message to the world about the island's determination to defend its democracy in the face of China's rising bellicosity. But Tsai has recast the election as being more than a local poll, saying the world is watching how Taiwan defends …

KMT lawmakers try to block bill they say could be used to overturn ex-President Chen Shui-bian’s corruption conviction. Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan’s parliament erupted in violence on Monday as lawmakers clashed over a bill that critics say could be used to overturn former President Chen Shui-bian’s conviction on corruption charges. KMT legislators say that President Tsai Ing-wen has taken advantage …

Taiwan is finding it difficult to keep itself out of international headlines. In response, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen made clear that Taipei would not bow to pressure from Beijing and articulated a growing desire in Taiwan to chart a path independent of Beijing. As the CCP bases much of its modern-day legitimacy on undoing the horrors of the “Century of …

Few imagined at its start that 2020 would be defined by a pandemic. Even the KMT, resentful of how Tsai’s COVID-19 response has made her a political rock star and incredibly popular in Taiwan, have neither argued against wearing masks in public nor encouraged people to question the CECC’s quarantine and social distancing programs. Maintaining Taiwan’s minimal exposure to COVID-19 …