Sino FileTaiwan election: Hong Kong won it, Beijing lost it

Beijing’s pressure on Taipei gave the Democratic Progressive Party a boost in the polls, on its way to a landslide victory over the Kuomintang

The vote also reflects the people’s views on the relationships between Washington, Beijing and Taipei under the presidencies of Trump, Xi and Tsai

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A man wears a headband showing a drawing of Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen during an election campaign. Photo: EPA

Published: 11:00am, 19 Jan 2020Updated: 3:23pm, 17 Feb 2020

When it comes to crucial elections for the highest office, there is no place in the world where outside factors take precedence over local issues – other than in Taiwan.

Mainland China’s increasingly hawkish attitude towards the island, Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protests, and Washington’s support of the democratic aspirations in those two Chinese communities have all contributed to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) landslide victory in the just-concluded presidential and legislative elections.

In the self-ruled island’s presidential race on January 11, Tsai won a record 8.2 million votes, or 57 per cent of the total, against 5.5 million votes (38 per cent) for her main opponent, Han Kuo-yu from the Kuomintang (KMT). It is a result few expected just a year ago, when various opinion polls suggested Han had a lead over Tsai with a margin of more than 30 percentage points. The DPP also won a comfortable majority of 61 seats against the KMT’s 38 in the 113-member parliament or Legislative Yuan.

In the past six presidential elections, voters have gone back and forth between the independence-leaning green camp led by the DPP and the Beijing-friendly blue camp led by KMT.