A Fifth of Column: A few comments on the 2020 Taiwan Election

The dominant narrative of Tsai’s comeback makes great copy but it is the wrong framing. We all know the story. A popular challenger comes out of nowhere to challenge the President, who is down in the polls. The KMT candidate, persistently down in the polls, takes action to suppress and distort embarrassing poll data, which […]

The Diplomat: James Soong: The End of an (Authoritarian) Era in Taiwan

Amid the coverage of Tsai Ing-wen’s resounding victory and re-election as president of Taiwan last week, scant attention was given to political veteran James Soong’s showing. The former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweight finished a distant third place with just 4.25 of the vote. This represented a drop of more than 8.5 percent from his […]

Focus Taiwan: Young candidates, underdogs prevail in several legislative races

Taipei, Jan. 12 (CNA) Taiwan’s legislative elections saw several young politicians prevail in high-profile races, and some candidates claimed victory independent of the country’s political mainstream dominated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT). … In the 79 races in which candidates were directly elected rather than through a party vote for legislators-at-large, […]

Current Affairs Taiwan (CAT) 台灣時事 12.30.2019 Episode 26

This week, hosts Michael Turton (麥哲恩) and Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) discuss the presidential debate, the future of the KMT, polling and how youth have turned away from the KMT. The “anti-infiltration” bill proposed by the DPP causes concerns, as does the infiltration itself–but it’s a tricky line to balance if freedoms are to be […]

Taiwan Quick Take: NPP tops youth poll, KMT at 2.99%

Depending on where you stand on the political spectrum, a poll held of 11,369 high school and university students was either very good news, middling news, or very, very dire news.  Of those students, it’s unclear how many of the college level students were of voting age, but a rough guess might be about half.  […]

Current Affairs Taiwan (CAT) 台灣時事 12.30.2019 Episode 26

This week, hosts Michael Turton (麥哲恩) and Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) discuss the presidential debate, the future of the KMT, polling and how youth have turned away from the KMT. The “anti-infiltration” bill proposed by the DPP causes concerns, as does the infiltration itself–but it’s a tricky line to balance if freedoms are to be […]