Thursday, November 14, 2024

Explaining Taiwan’s election: A visual guide to the presidential election and China-Taiwan relations

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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.

(Original caption) July 13, 1949 - Caoshan, Taiwan: President Chiang Kai-shek takes a recent photo with his bodyguard in the background. Chiang Kai-shek is currently in the Philippines to discuss an anti-communist pact in the Pacific with President Elpidio Quirino.
Chiang Kai-shek and his bodyguard visited the Philippines in 1949. Chiang Kai-shek and Philippine President Elpidio Quirino discussed an anti-communist pact in the Pacific.

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.

A line of Chinese proletarian workers pays homage to the body of Chairman Mao in Beijing in 1976.
Chinese workers mourn the body of Chairman Mao in Beijing in 1976. Mao Zedong died in Beijing on September 9 of the same year at the age of 82.

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.

An undated file photo released by China's state news agency Xinhua on March 20 shows a Chinese destroyer firing a missile at a submarine from the sea.
In 1996, a Chinese destroyer opened fire during a large-scale live-fire exercise by the People’s Liberation Army in the South China Sea.

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.

Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (center) of the opposition Kuomintang (Kuomintang) waves after winning the presidential election at party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, March 22, 2008. Ma Ying-jeou won Taiwan's presidential election and entered into an alliance with China after eight years of pro-independence rule under Chen Shui-bian, who pledged to improve relations.
Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) waves after winning the presidential election at party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 22, 2008. Ma Ying-jeou is Shui Bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, who has vowed to improve relations with mainland China after eight years of rule by pro-independence Chen.

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.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou (left) shake hands before meeting at a hotel in Singapore on November 7, 2015.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou (left) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping before a meeting at a hotel in Singapore on November 7, 2015.

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.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - MAY 20: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen waves to a crowd in Taipei, Taiwan on May 20, 2016. Taiwan's new president, Tsai Ing-wen, took the oath of office on May 20, 2016, after winning an overwhelming victory in the election on January 16, 2016.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen waves to the crowd after taking the oath of office in Taipei, Taiwan, May 20, 2016. Tsai won an overwhelming victory in the January 16, 2016 election.

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.

Fujian, one of the closest points to Taiwan from mainland China, on August 4, 2022, ahead of a large-scale military exercise off the coast of Taiwan in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the autonomous government. Tourists watch as a Chinese military helicopter passes over the province's Pingtan Island. island.  - China plans to launch its largest-ever military exercise encircling Taiwan in a show of military power across a vital international shipping lane, following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the autonomous island on August 4. .  (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP) (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Tourists watch as a Chinese military helicopter passes over Pingtan Island in mainland China’s Fujian province on August 4, 2022. On that day, mainland China began large-scale military exercises around Taiwan. The island was ruled by then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Pingtan Island is one of the islands closest to Taiwan from mainland China.

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



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