In the victory of the opposition Kuomintang party, the impact of the covid has prevailed more than the proximity of China
After a long campaign that filled Taiwan with posters and colorful rallies over the past month, this Saturday’s municipal elections dealt a heavy blow to the island’s sovereign government, independent ‘de facto’ but claimed by China. Under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) suffers a serious setback at the hands of the opposition Kuomintang Party (KMT), winning in 13 of 21 competing cities and counties, including four of the six largest areas in metropolitan Taiwan .
Among them are the capital Taipei, which the KMT recaptured after eight years thanks to the candidacy of Chiang Wan-an, great-grandson of the dictator Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war against the communist revolutionary Mao. Zedong in 1949. Also known as Wayne Chiang because he studied and worked in the United States. At 43, he becomes the youngest mayor of Taipei and drags along a stormy family drama. His father, Vice Prime Minister Chiang Hsiao-yen, is the illegitimate son of Chiang Kai-shek’s eldest son, making him the new heir to this long political dynasty, but not by the official branch.
If Chiang Wan-an and the KMT emerge as big winners on election night, President Tsai Ing-wen will be an outright defeat. After his landslide re-election in January 2020, when he benefited from Chinese repression in Hong Kong and secured a record over eight million votes, Tsai had marked this election as a plebiscite on his management and especially on his sovereignist discourse against Beijing’s demand . As he put it in a video to voters on Thursday, in which he appealed to Taiwanese patriotism in light of the reunification proclaimed by the Chinese regime and the rapprochement with the continent the KMT stands for.
But according to most political analysts, in the defeat of Tsai’s party, the impact of the covid has prevailed more than relations with mainland China. While Taiwan was one of the countries best able to contain the pandemic after the outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020, the tight restrictions until the beginning of this year have severely damaged the economy and reopening since May has resulted in deaths. After six years in power, and with a pandemic looming, the PDP should have done very well not to suffer from voters’ political wear and tear.
Still, the Green Party maintains its strongholds in the south of the island, Tainan and Kaohsiung, despite the KMT’s landslide Blue victory. While not consoling in defeat, the PDP seizes the islands of Kinmen and Penghu, closest to China, from the KMT following military tensions last summer following the visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
Thinking she was defeated, President Tsai Ing-wen stepped down as head of the PDP, which must find a candidate to win back the electorate for the 2024 general election. For that next nomination, this victory gives wings to the KMT, whose president, Eric Chu, prefers to be cautious because the same thing happened in the 2018 municipal elections. That year, the government was defeated and then won the 2020 presidential election by capitalizing on anti-Chinese sentiment for the crushing of protests in Hong Kong demanding democracy, which was seen in Taiwan as a prelude to his intentions on this island he sees as “rebellious.” There is more than a year to go before the general election and as things stand, anything can happen in the Strait of Formosa.
Source: La Verdad
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