CNN
—
Voters head to polling stations in Taiwan on January 13 to elect a new president and parliament As tensions between autonomous governments rise, This relates to China, which has strengthened its military presence in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea in recent years.
Taiwanese voters will choose a new leader to succeed Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, who won elections in 2016 and 2020 and is completing her second term. Tsai is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is hated by China. Communist leaders consider Taiwan a sovereign nation, not part of China as claimed by Beijing. Due to term limits, he cannot run again.
candidate
Voters will choose the president from among three candidates. A fourth candidate, billionaire Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, withdrew hours before the deadline to officially register as a candidate.
The opposition consists of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which lost the civil war and defected to Taiwan in 1949 and ruled the island with an iron fist for almost 40 years, and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), an established centrist alternative party. ing. After the leaders of both parties argued on live television, they were unable to join forces against the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and ended up running in separate presidential elections.
After decades of martial law imposed by the KMT, Taiwan held its first direct presidential election in 1996. Since then, only candidates from the two major political parties, the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party, have won the presidential position.
Taiwan’s presidential election is determined by simple majority vote and is held every four years. There is a two-term limit for the presidency.
On Saturday, the nation will choose its president for the eighth time in a three-way race with no clear favorite.
Approximately 20 million people in Taiwan are eligible to vote in the presidential election at approximately 18,000 polling stations. Approximately 1 million people will be eligible to vote for the first time.
The issue of identity, related to Taipei’s tense relations with China, is one of Taiwan’s most important political divides, and research shows it is closely linked to voting patterns in past elections.
China’s ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though it has never ruled the island. China’s Communist Party has long vowed to “reunify” the island with mainland China, by force if necessary.
Since 1992, The Election Research Center at National Chengchi University conducted a poll asking adult residents about their national identity.Over the past decade, more than half of respondents now identify only as Taiwanese.
Timeline of political tensions over the Taiwan Strait
[1945[1945年
After World War II, the Empire of Japan, which began its rule in 1895, ceded Taiwan to the government of the Republic of China, which ruled mainland China at the time.
1949
After being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communist Party in the civil war, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang forces fled to Taiwan. The Nationalist Party imposed martial law on Taiwan, beginning a nearly 40-year dictatorship.
Bettman/Getty Images
1979-1992
The deaths of Chiang Kai-shek (1975) and Mao Zedong (1976) paved the way for a thaw in cross-strait relations. The Kuomintang is moving toward opening dialogue with the Communist Party government in Beijing.
Bettman/Getty Images
1987-1991
Martial law was lifted in 1987 as the Kuomintang began a slow transition to democracy. Taiwan will end its state of war with China in four years.
1996
China tests missiles off the coast of Taiwan to intimidate voters in Taiwan’s first direct electionpresidential election. The Nationalist Party, led by President Lee Teng-hui, won.
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
the year of 2000
The Nationalist Party loses power after more than 50 years. The Democratic Progressive Party, which was founded by opponents of the KMT during the martial law era to promote a distinct Taiwanese identity, will be elected president for the first time.
2008
ofThe Nationalist Party regains the position of president.Dialogue between Taipei and Beijing has resumed, and a period of further deepening of cross-strait relations will follow.
Maurice Tsai/Bloomberg/Getty Images
2015
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou held a historic summit in Singapore, marking the first time the leaders of China and Taiwan have met face-to-face since 1949.
Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
2016
Candidate Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party wins Taiwan’s presidential election. China cut off most communications with Taipei and began increasing economic, diplomatic, and military pressure on Taipei.
Ashley Pong/Getty Images
2020-2023
China will increase military pressure on Taiwan. In the wake of then-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022, China will launch the largest Taiwan-focused military exercise in decades.
Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
Sources: Center for Strategic and International Studies; Council on Foreign Relations; Government of Taiwan; Britannica. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Chinese perspective. Democratic Progressive Party; Mainland Affairs Committee of the Republic of China (Taiwan).U.S. Department of State; American Enterprise Institute