VOTE 2016: Taiwan’s Election: Change Is a Good Thing

Politics is a bit like sailing through rough seas without proper navigational instruments: there’s a general idea as to the destination, but how to get there is very much an exercise of trial and error, triangulation, improvisation and adjustments. The benefits of adjustments – their indispensability, in fact – are often underappreciated, as the human tendency is …

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Explaining the Rise in Taiwanese Identification

The trend began several years ago, and no matter how hard the current government in Taipei and the one in Beijing try to convince them otherwise, with propaganda and sweeteners, there was no stopping it: more and more Taiwanese people identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese. Several demographic factors have contributed to this steady rise …

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The Fallacy of Yang Hengjun’s ‘Third Option’ for Unification

In a recent post (original in Chinese here), Yang Hengjun (楊恆均), a former official in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs-turned “independent scholar, novelist, and blogger” (information indicates that he may also have been with the Ministry of State Security), presents three scenarios through which unification between Taiwan and China would conceivably occur. The first two — “natural unification” following …

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How KMT Rules Preclude Reform

Ever since 2000, the KMT chair has been in the hands of men with questionable political judgment, and the party has followed their lead into an electoral abyss Everyone has ideas about how the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should change, but first the party itself must become capable of change. The KMT’s very structure resists …

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VOTE 2016: Anatomy of a Small Avalanche

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) resounding victories in the joint presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 16 are both a signal of strength as well as a mild disappointment, falling just short of expectations of a true electoral avalanche. At first glance this was unquestionably an emphatic victory. The DPP’s presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won …

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China Spews Vitriol Over ‘Taiwan Night’ in Ottawa

It’s not been a particularly good past couple of weeks in cross-strait relations, what with China’s “abduction” of 45 Taiwanese, elbowing out of Taiwan from a high-level OECD meeting in Brussels, and questions on whether Beijing will pressure the WHO and ICAO to block Taipei’s efforts to join the organizations as an observer. And now …

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It’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ or ‘One System’

China on June 10 issued its first-ever white paper on “one country, two systems” and the current state of things in Hong Kong, the former British colony that was re-unified with the Mainland in 1997. While the document contains little that is unexpected in terms of rhetoric that expounds the virtues of the system or …

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VOTE 2016: Foreign Students Get a Taste of Taiwan’s Democracy

My colleague Yufen Chang and I recently completed a faculty-led study abroad trip to Taiwan for three weeks, a program which focused on Taiwan’s democratization and the 2016 election. Most of the students had some background in Chinese language (ranging from one semester to four years), but few had been to Taiwan before. One student …

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VOTE 2016: Hung Hsiu-chu’s Crusade Against ‘Populism’

Seemingly incapable of coming up with a campaign platform that can resonate with the general public, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has instead turned her rhetorical guns on the very thing that on Jan. 16 will decide who Taiwan’s next president will be: the people. Besides being a stunningly poor decision …

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The New Power Party’s Platform

A new party of mass participation, continued progress, and hyper-expanded fighting ability. About Nation: Nation, ethnic groups, and international affairs The New Power Party (時代力量) advocates the promotion of the normalization of Taiwan’s status as a nation as well as its citizens’ enjoyment of the basic dignity, rights, and interests of the citizens of a …

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President Ma’s ‘Black Box’ Problem

The Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government is once again facing off against a group of young protesters who oppose the government’s policies and procedures. The current protest is directed at the government’s efforts to change the content of history textbooks. This is another in a long series of protests that addressed a wide range of issues …

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Split-Ticket Voting: Art or Science?

Evidence suggests a gap exists between expectations and election outcomes, with those backing winning candidates more likely to say they understood the system In Taiwan, as in most mixed member legislative systems, voters have separate ballots for a district candidate and the party list, thus allowing for split-ticket voting. But what influences splitting votes across …

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Campaign Ads and Taiwan’s Electoral Demography

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A look at how candidates tailor their last-moment ‘get-out-the-vote’ appeals to reflect polling data and generational trends After well over half a year of campaigning, Taiwan’s “nine-in-one” mega-election will conclude in little over a week. As campaigns enter the final dash before the finish line, the principal message in their ads and punditry has begun …

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Why June 4 Should Matter to Taiwan

Twenty-five years of maturing as a distinct nation has made Taiwanese seemingly uninterested about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but they ignore the lessons at their own risk Every year on June 4th, it is hard not to feel slightly disappointed by the small turnout at the commemoration events here in Taiwan for the Tiananmen Square …

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The KMT Implosion and Historical Inevitability

When future historians consider the demise of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), they will have plenty of material to sort through. Some will likely start with the role of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who surely has a lot to answer for. They will shake their heads in wonder at the insistently imperial style he brought to …

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Curriculum Protests Challenge Chiang-Confucian Social Order

At 2 am on July 31, soon after protesters against the changes to the high school history curriculum guidelines had occupied the courtyard of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taipei, a couple arrived at the MOE looking for their 18-year-old son Chou Tien-kuan (周天觀) and tried to make him go home with them. The …

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VOTE 2016: Soong Was a Scourge of Press Freedom and Native Culture

In his announcement of his 2016 presidential candidacy, James Soong (宋楚瑜) of the People First Party (PFP) promised to uphold Taiwan’s freedom and democracy and claimed he had made many contributions to the nation’s democratization over the past 20 years, including helping to phase out the “100-year National Assembly” (in which representatives held their positions …

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Musings on the Taipei Elections: Why It’s Hard to be ‘Neutral’

I’ve already written a number of articles about the ongoing nine-in-one elections, and it therefore isn’t my intention here to engage in a deep analysis of their proceedings and impact. My aim here simply consists of jotting down a few impressions of what’s happened to date, and to briefly discuss the challenges — especially in …

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Elections in a Time of Democratic Malaise

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the China Policy Institute Blog, University of Nottingham, on Nov. 18, 2014.)  On Nov. 29 millions of Taiwanese will once again exert their hard-earned right to choose the men and women who will represent them at the local level for the next four years in nationwide elections …

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Ask the Departed, Ask the Living

With a glint in the eye, the China “expert” has a solution to the many challenges that are associated with China’s growing assertiveness. Not without theatricals of regret, the expert admits being resigned to the idea that we inhabit an “imperfect world.” The world is unfair. But something must be done about China to avoid …

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