Hou You-yi

Typhoon Holiday Leads to Partisan Contention

Brian Hioe
A typhoon holiday called for northern Taiwan has led to contention between the KMT and DPP. Controversy revolves around the fact northern Taiwan called a typhoon day for Wednesday on Tuesday evening despite the fact that the impact from the typhoon turned out to, in fact, be minimal. A second typhoon day was later declared for Thursday, though whether the effects of the Typhoon Krathom warranted a second typhoon day are debatable. But central and southern Taiwan have been more strongly affected by Typhoon Krathom, with two dead, two missing, and 103 injured, as well as over 50,000 households without power...
EnglishOctober 2024Politics4 min read

What Does Fu Kun-Chi’s Challenge to the KMT Legislative Presidency Ticket Indicate?

Brian Hioe
The contest over who will be the next speaker of the Legislative Yuan is on. The DPP hopes for Yu Shyi-kun to continue serving as president of the Legislative Yuan. By contrast, the KMT has aligned behind a joint ticket of its 2020 presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, and its former chair, Johnny Chiang. As part of this ticket, Han would become president and Chiang would become vice president...
EnglishJanuary 2024Politics7 min read

What Does Taiwan’s Presidential Election Tell Us About Its Economic Prospects?

Min-Hua Chiang
Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party secured his election as Taiwan’s 16th president on January 13, 2024. As the DPP extends its rule for another four years, the administration is likely to maintain President Tsai Ing-wen’s economic policies, notably diversifying the economy away from China. Navigating Taiwan’s export-oriented economy through the evolving US-China relationship will pose the most significant challenge for the new administration...
EnglishJanuary 2024Politics9 min read

Taiwan’s New President: Continuity, Priorities, Vision

Chieh-ting Yeh
It is no doubt that January 13, 2024, marked a pivotal moment in Taiwan’s political landscape as William Lai Ching-te emerged victorious in the presidential election, securing the mantle from Tsai Ing-wen. Garnering 5.59 million votes, Lai clinched 40.05% of the total ballots, signaling a new chapter in Taiwan’s leadership. Moreover, these elections had received the highest level of attention from the international community in recent memory, with roughly over 400 foreign media personnel in Taiwan covering the event...
EnglishJanuary 2024Politics8 min read

The Taiwan People’s Party as the Kingmaker: What Does the Future Hold for the Party?

Brian Hioe
The results of the presidential and legislative elections, in many ways, confirmed predictions ahead of time. Late polling before the blackout period imposed ten days before elections showed Lai to have a significant lead ahead of his opponents, even if Ko Wen-je’s 3.7 million votes prove an impressive showing for the upstart TPP candidate. Indeed, in the early vote count, it appeared as though Ko could, in fact, be leading Hou, and it could not be ruled out from polls before the election results as to whether Ko or Hou was in second place...
EnglishJanuary 2024Politics8 min read

Neither Green Nor Just: The DPP’s Reckoning With Environmental Justice

Dominika Remžová
The Russian weaponization of gas supplies has sparked a renewed interest in Taiwan’s energy security, placing the DPP’s anti-nuclear policies at the centre of attention. On the one hand, both energy and national security experts have criticized the DPP’s continuing nuclear phase-out for pushing Taiwan, which in 2022 imported more than 97% of its energy, into an increasingly precarious position. The opposition, on the other hand, has criticised the party’s 2025 energy mix formula (i.e., 20% renewable energy, 30% coal, and 50% LNG) for its inconsistency with international trends, namely the increasing role of nuclear energy in global decarbonization efforts, which the DPP countered by referring to industry-wide trends, such as the renewable energy focus of the RE100 initiative, instead....
EnglishJanuary 2023Politics11 min read