The 2024 Taiwanese presidential election resulted in a victory for DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te today. Lai had a clear lead from the start, but the overall dynamics of the election reflect that the DPP could have faced a defeat had the pan-Blue camp managed to have a joint ticket...
The first-ever policy presentation for political parties was held on Wednesday. This saw some controversy, with the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, Taiwan Obasan Political Equality Party, and Green Party Taiwan demonstrating that they were given less time to speak than larger more electorally viable parties such as the DPP, KMT, and TPP. While there were sixteen parties represented, the following article will only focus on some of the parties...
One of the most ambiguous of the campaign promises to date offered by Taiwanese politicians has been the pan-Blue camp’s call for a shift to a cabinet-style system. It is unclear what this would consist of, seeing as such a shift would require constitutional changes in Taiwan’s political system...
When it comes to the climate, all three candidates in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election have emphasized the importance of taking action and committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The main driver behind this mainstreaming of climate policy is the fact that supply chain requirements have made the country’s export competitiveness highly connected to climate performance. Therefore, we must scrutinise the comprehensiveness of each candidate’s policy proposals, rather than solely relying on whether they are climate denialists, to distinguish their positions. Taiwan Climate Action Network (TCAN), a collaborative advocacy platform organized by five NGOs, has thus produced a climate commitment tracker to compare their positions on seven key climate-related policies: (1) 2030 emissions reduction target, (2) carbon pricing strategies, (3) 2030 power mix, (4) renewable energy development plan, (5) industrial decarbonization, (6) public participation, and (7) just transition. In this article, we will focus specifically on their 2030 pledges, carbon pricing strategies, and just transition policies...
KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi has begun to lean into attacks on DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te over the death penalty. Hou has called on Lai to clarify what he claims to be an unclear stance on the death penalty...
According to Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, the next-generation Taiwanese indigenous fighter plane is under development. This, in Tsai’s words, is to continue her administration’s defense policy...
Energy policy remains a highly controversial policy arena in Taiwan after democratization, given its importance for Taiwan’s security, environmental sustainability and economic development. Under the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, the agenda of “Nuclear-free Homeland 2025” (2025非核家園) proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party in 2016 has been subject to political challenges, which involved the debates about the use of nuclear energy beyond 2025 and the reduced capacity of coal-fired electricity plants for air pollution mitigation. The policy strategy to replace nuclear energy with rapid solar energy development has also faced enormous social challenges as its large-scale installation conflicts with the existing land uses...