China has again sought to pressure Taiwan through economic means ahead of the upcoming election. This has taken the form of a carrot-and-stick approach as of late, however, with China announcing that tax concessions for twelve chemical compound imports will be suspended...
The vice presidential policy presentation took place on December 22nd. Though the format is not a debate, it is often a de facto debate–compared to the first presidential policy platform presentation a few days earlier, it was still more of a debate. The order was Cynthia Wu of the TPP, Jaw Shaw-kong of the KMT, and Hsiao Bikhim of the DPP...
The first presidential policy presentation took place on December 20th. The format is not strictly a debate, as it offers more limited opportunities for exchanges between presidential candidates. Nevertheless, it usually amounts to a de facto debate, and candidates usually do attack each other in the course of the policy presentation...
Bonnie Glaser, the noted Taiwan expert, recently criticized KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi over an image released by the Hou campaign that suggested that Glaser had endorsed him. Hou later apologized for the incident...
With less than a month until elections take place in Taiwan, the KMT’s messaging proves to be highly unusual. In particular, the party does not seem to have a coherent strategy, caught between efforts to moderate its message and try to appeal to the hardliners of the deep Blue camp...
KMT legislator Jessica Chen, who represents the party in Kinmen, recently called for the freezing of the Straits Exchange Foundation’s budget over what she claims to be the failure of the body’s promotion of trade ties with China. Chu called for the freezing of 45 million NT that was to be allocated to the SEF...
One sees the return of familiar issues in the presidential election with pan-Blue candidates criticizing new textbook guidelines that reduce the teaching of classical Chinese. This has been framed by both KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi, TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je, and former president Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT as “desinicization"...
In a surprise move, TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je has stated that he intends to maintain the current foreign policy of President Tsai Ing-wen, except that he would place greater emphasis on exchanges with China. This seems to be an attempt by Ko to swerve after the embarrassing debacle in which he rowed with KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi, as well as independent candidate Terry Gou on live television...
The KMT and TPP have begun to lean into calls to restart talks over the CSSTA. The CSSTA was the controversial trade agreement that the KMT hoped to ink with China during the Ma administration, resulting in the outbreak of the 2014 Sunflower Movement...
Controversy has broken out about the DPP and TPP vice presidential candidates regarding allegations about whether they hold US citizenship. In particular, the DPP is fielding former representative to the US, Hsiao Bikhim, as its vice presidential candidate. On the other hand, the TPP is fielding legislator Cynthia Wu as its vice presidential candidate. The KMT is fielding pan-Blue firebrand and media personality Jaw Shaw-kong as their vice presidential candidate, though he has not become embroiled in any citizenship controversy...
