#22

Marriage Equality Advocates Not Disheartened, Continue Canvassing Across Taiwan

Despite the unexpected results from the referendum last Saturday, pro-marriage equality groups have not backed down. Undeterred, Equal Rights Cuties, Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan, and the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights have continued to step up efforts to vocally and actively advocate with the public at all levels...

Mobilizing Crisis, Material Inequality, and Ideological Splits

On November 24, five of the national referendum results show overwhelming opposition against the legalization of same-sex marriage and a gender equality education in grade school that would include LGBTQ issues. While there are many questions that remain to be answered through a more detailed analysis of the voting data, we are here writing as activists to reflect on the movement and offering some observations and directions on how we may want to move forward from here...

What Now for Taiwanese Independence Efforts After the Failure of the Olympics Referendum?

The proposal for Taiwan to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name “Taiwan”, instead of “Chinese Taipei”, was among those defeated during the referendum held simultaneously with 2018 local elections. This will have important ramifications going forward for efforts to realize Taiwanese independence...

KMT Likely to Push for City-Based Exchanges With China Based on Precedent Set by Ko

International views of 2018 local elections in Taiwan, unsurprisingly, have in many cases skewed towards the assessment that China may have been the ultimate victor in nine-in-one elections. The KMT is very likely to leverage on this fact in the near future, to try and push for a new round of efforts to facilitate exchanges with China by way of the city-based exchange model pioneered by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. This would be a means of circumventing the central authority of the Tsai administration...

Conservative Forces on the Rise in Taiwan After Progressive Civil Society’s Defeat in 2018 Elections

There would seem to be no greater indicator of progressive civil society’s defeats in 2018 local elections more than its losses across the board in terms of the referendums it pushed for. However, the situation seems to set to get bleaker in the near future. Conservative groups have now realized that referendums may be one way for them to force their political agendas through...

How Should We Interpret Ko Wen-Je’s Narrow Election Victory?

Ko Wen-je barely clinched the Taipei mayorship yesterday night, winning by several thousand votes over KMT candidate Ting Shou-chung. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), Ko won with 580,820 votes, while Ting lost with 577,566 votes. This puts Ko just over 3,300 votes ahead of Ting, a narrow victory by any means. How should we interpret this narrow win?...