Taiwan election: a fight for national identity
Historic DPP victory throws spotlight on generational divide over island's position on independence, identity and China
Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has won an unprecedented third consecutive presidential victory, in an election closely watched by the world.
President-elect Lai Ching-te is taking over from Tsai Ing-wen, who has served the maximum two terms in the top job, after claiming more than 40% of the vote. "This is a night that belongs to Taiwan," Lai, currently vice president, told supporters at a rally after his two main opposition rivals conceded defeat following Saturday's election. "We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world."
Global leaders have congratulated Lai, "drawing ire" from China, which had hoped to see the pro-sovereignty DPP ousted, said The Guardian. In a statement issued after the election result was announced, Beijing insisted once again that "Taiwan is part of China".
Lai's victory, said CNN, is "a further snub to eight years of increasingly strongarm tactics towards Taiwan" by China under President Xi Jinping, who has vowed that the island's eventual "reunification" with the mainland is "a historical inevitability". The result is also "another major blow for Taiwan's Kuomintang, which back warmer relations with Beijing and have not held the presidency since 2016".
While most foreign policy experts are speculating about the future of the island's fractious relationship with the mainland as tensions increase, others are focusing on what the election reveals about the changing face of Taiwan.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
How does Taiwan's population identify?
Identity is "a hugely sensitive issue for this island of 23 million people", wrote NPR's international correspondent Emily Feng from capital Taipei. Although more than 90% of the population "can trace their roots to mainland China", the majority "now identify in polls as Taiwanese only", which is "a huge shift from just 30 years ago".
Taiwan's "burgeoning identity" is being "tested" by the election, wrote Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, the BBC's Taipei-based Asia correspondent. This was the first election in which all three presidential candidates were of Taiwanese descent, rather than from families that arrived from China in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.
Having been defeated by Mao Zedong's communist army, the nationalists, led by General Chiang Kai-shek, and roughly 1.5 million supporters fled across the Taiwan Strait to set up a government-in-exile on the island. The government immediately enforced Mandarin Chinese as the national language.
Today, in Taipei, Mandarin (a northern Chinese dialect) is used for education and commerce. But the majority of the island's population speak Taiwanese, a version of a dialect from the southern Chinese region of Fujian that is "as different from Mandarin as English is from Portuguese", said Wingfield-Hayes. Many mix both languages when speaking to fellow Taiwanese.
A generational divide exists, however, with younger people more likely to be turning their backs on the mainland and seeing themselves as mainly Taiwanese.
Many of the DPP's young supporters also speak fluent English and are "passionate about the environment and LGBTQ rights", said Wingfield-Hayes. For some young people, Mandarin is "the language of a colonial oppressor".
"The real Taiwanese people are Indigenous people," said NPR's Feng. "Everyone else came here after. They're Chinese."
What next?
Lai, who takes over as president in May, is "openly loathed" by China's Communist Party leaders, said CNN. His victory is "unlikely to lead to any improvement in ties between Beijing and Taipei".
A spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the election result "does not represent the mainstream view on the island".
Actually, said CNN, the results show voters "backing the DPP's view that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign nation that should bolster defences against China's threats and deepen relations with fellow democratic countries, even if that means economic punishment or military intimidation by Beijing".
However, although the DPP emphasises that Taiwan should not be subordinate to the CCP, Lai has repeatedly ruled out a push for official independence.
The "younger, more ambivalent generation" desire peace with China, said Wingfield-Hayes. But most have no desire for reunification with the mainland either.
While Beijing will continue to push a message of a unified China, it is the people of Taiwan who are "deciding what they want to be".
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Harriet Marsden is a writer for The Week, mostly covering UK and global news and politics. Before joining the site, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, specialising in social affairs, gender equality and culture. She worked for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, and regularly contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Tortoise Media and Metro, as well as appearing on BBC Radio London, Times Radio and “Woman’s Hour”. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, London, and was awarded the "journalist-at-large" fellowship by the Local Trust charity in 2021.
-
The Pentagon faces an uncertain future with Trump
Talking Point The president-elect has nominated conservative commentator Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
This is what you should know about State Department travel advisories and warnings
In Depth Stay safe on your international adventures
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
'All Tyson-Paul promised was spectacle and, in the end, that's all we got'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The teenage 'maths prodigy' who turned out to be a cheat
Under The Radar Jiang Ping defied expectations in a global competition but something wasn't right
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Why China's young people are rejecting marriage
The Explainer Changing attitudes and a slowing economy are contributing to a slump in weddings
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Ivory Coast reels from surge of homophobic attacks fuelled by online influencers
Under the Radar Once considered a safe haven, West African nation's LGBTQ+ citizens says they are now afraid to be seen in public
By Tess Foley-Cox Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Did the Covid virus leak from a lab?
The Explainer Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the idea that Covid-19 originated in a virology lab in Wuhan now has many adherents
By The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Chimpanzees are dying of human diseases
Under the radar Great apes are vulnerable to human pathogens thanks to genetic similarity, increased contact and no immunity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published