The election 10 days out

Jan 3, 2024

Taipei, Taiwan

The election season is in full swing here.  A common sight in Taipei is to see groups of people decked out in the election gear of their preferred candidate chanting slogans and handing out literature to passers-by.  In the rural areas it is cars that you see outfitted with loudspeakers playing the slogans of their candidates.  There’s been debates of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, and now we’re about to enter the final ten-day period when no one can talk about the polls.  

What are the kinds of things people are talking about in the meantime?  First of all, I believe this election is a referendum on the Sunflower Movement issues; to that extent the death penalty, which Taiwan still has, was discussed in debates.  Also to that extent, one party is calling for a return to CSSTA and another party is open to it in theory; only the DPP is still opposed to CSSTA and in line with the movement politics of the Sunflower Movement.  However, you can see some more sophisticated consensus developing too.  

In light of recent events, the third party candidate Ko Wen-je pointed out that cross strait politics have been augmented or even outright replaced by cross-Pacific politics, with the US and China as the main competitors.  “Cooperate if you must cooperate, compete if you must compete, and deter if you must deter,” he said, paraphrasing the US State Department.  However, the real connection to the world is more simple: the election is a test of Taiwanese society’s commitment to democracy and freedom.  It’s the sanctity of the elections themselves that needs to be protected, because this is exactly what China and authoritarian nations want to subvert and devalue.  

In the pursuit of maintaining and protecting democratic norms, Taiwan and the United States have leaned on their “robust unofficial relationship” which has been in place since the US cut off official ties to the Chiang regime in 1979.

One of the main reasons, I think, that the status quo is to be preferred here is that the unofficial relationship between the US and Taiwan has more preferable substance, including cooperation on human rights issues, that the official relationship with the Chiang regime simply did not.  Of course you can trace the development of that international cooperation through the Formosa Incident events which began right after the end of official ties in 1979. 

Some of the Formosa Incident activists are active DPP politicians now in this government.  Some will doubtless remain if the DPP wins another term.  But one of the most interesting persons to emerge through this election cycle has been the former envoy to the United States, now vice presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim.  She’s leveraged a very successful tour of duty in the US into a vice presidential nomination, and she represents a certain continuity between the DPP old guard and the future (that includes Sunflower activists.)

She made note of the framework that I will close with for now before the talk of polls must cease for ten days.  In a speech she outlined Taiwan’s raison d’etat particularly on the global stage in a way any Foucauldean would appreciate.  The reasons that govern Taiwan, she said, are “security, trade, and global cooperation.”  A worthy project for a small island nation punching above its weight in global affairs.