Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party wins third consecutive presidential term as voters dismiss China warnings
CNNJan 13
Taiwan: Ruling Party's Lai Wins Presidential Election
The Facts
Taiwan's Central Election Commission announced on Saturday that Vice Pres. William Lai Ching-te has won the presidential election despite Beijing, which claims the island as its own, warning Taiwanese people not to vote for him.
The candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secured 40.1% of the vote, or more than 5.5M votes, to defeat second-placed Kuomintang's (KMT) Hou Yu-ih by roughly seven percentage points. Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) finished third with 26.5% of the vote.
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
Voters have ignored threats from Beijing, demonstrating their commitment to the island's democracy as well as to its de facto sovereignty. Hopefully, the PRC will finally realize that intimidating the Taiwanese people doesn't work and understand that only peace can promote stability across the Strait. If not, then it's better for Taiwan to have bolstered defenses and deeper ties with other democratic nations.
Pro-China narrative
Taiwan belongs to China, and no election will ever obstruct the inevitable national reunification. That's even more true now as results clearly revealed that voters gave no mandate for the DPP to represent the mainstream public opinion on the island. Beijing wants peace, but it will firmly oppose separatist activities and foreign interference.
Nerd narrative
There's a 13% chance that Taiwan/Republic of China will declare independence by 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.