Did identity politics simply disappear in 2016 elections? Not so. But we do see a change in Taiwan's political landscape as reflected in the lack of overt forms of identity politics in elections...
Compared to other countries not only in the region, but across the world, Taiwan has a surprisingly high voting age. But calls for lowering the voting age have been stymied. Why?...
We might draw parallels between past November local elections in Hong Kong and Taiwan 2016 elections in regard to Taiwan’s “Third Force” and Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Soldiers”...
A recent video uploaded by the KMT on Facebook focuses on the idea of intergenerational conflict. Recent events that have occurred in Taiwan, mostly issues that rose out of the Sunflower Movement led by students, are framed in the ad as an attack against those of the older generation. Why would the KMT attempt to provoke intergenerational conflict?...
It is quite often assumed that post-democratization, the KMT has become a “normal” political party, analogous to any other party functioning in a two-party political system. This is hardly so...
Even if it may be that Tsai’s victory in the present seems all but inevitable, Tsai faces certain uphill challenges once president. Such challenges ultimately stem from international perceptions of the first DPP presidency under Chen Shui-Bian. The DPP is still seen as a dangerous troublemaker that threatens to disrupt cross-strait relations on the basis of its ideological pro-independence fanaticism on the basis of Chen Shui-Bian’s presidency...
It is probably already clear that Eric Chu will not be the next president of Taiwan. Thus, rather than fret about the possibility of a Chu presidency which will not come to be, we might concern ourselves with why exactly Eric Chu is running in the present...
The two and a half hours of the first presidential candidate debate took place on December 27th. Given that polling shows Eric Chu and James Soong lag far behind Tsai Ing-wen, good faith and a miracle would be needed to assume the debate would turn the tables at all. So, unsurprisingly, this debate was largely empty talk....
We might cross-examine the vice presidential candidates of the DPP, KMT, and PFP, who have been labelled by netizens as the "Knight", the "Fairy", and the "Cult Leader" respectively...