President Tsai resigns as DPP chairperson after election setback
President Tsai Ing-wen announces her resignation as the DPP chairperson at a news conference in Taipei Saturday evening. CNA photo Nov. 26, 2022
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) resigned with immediate effect as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Saturday after the party suffered a crushing defeat in local elections that day. In a speech at DPP headquarters, Tsai said that as party chairperson she humbly accepts and must shoulder responsibility for the party's disappointing election results. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) also verbally tendered his resignation, Tsai said, but added that she had asked him to stay in his post to ensure that the implementation of major policies is not interrupted.
Tsai attributed the DPP's election rout to its failure to change the political landscape at the local-government level, meet people's expectations, and offer quality candidates. All these were reasons why the DPP was unable to appeal to the public again after the party's victories in the 2020 presidential and legislative elections, she said. "Political parties and politicians are insignificant next to public opinion," Tsai said. "The DPP would engage in solemn introspection and aspire to do a better job to meet people's high expectations," she said.
At a press event held at the party's headquarters, Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hailed the party's election performance as a triumph not just for the KMT but for the people of Taiwan as a whole. Chu added that it also served as a warning to the DPP, which the KMT chair said had been abusing power by mobilizing an "internet army" to attack nonsupporters. Chu said that Saturday's election results offered the KMT a glimmer of hope for the 2024 presidential race. He pledged that his party would continue to do its best in soliciting support from swing voters while upholding the sovereignty of the Republic of China, the de jure name for Taiwan.
Taiwan president resigns as party leader after election loss
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses on Saturday in which voters chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island.
Concerns about threats from rival China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, took a backseat to more local issues in the elections.
Tsai had spoken out many times about “opposing China and defending Taiwan” in the course of campaigning for her party. But the party’s candidate Chen Shih-chung, who lost his battle for mayor of Taipei, only raised the issue of the Chinese Communist Party’s threat a few times before he quickly switched back to local issues as there was little interest.
KMT wins big in local elections, taking four special municipalities
Taipei Mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an (front) of the opposition KMT and his campaign team celebrate his victory outside his campaign headquarters on Saturday evening. CNA photo Nov. 26, 2022
The Kuomintang (KMT) scored a big victory in Taiwan's local government elections, taking 13 of the 21 cities and counties up for grabs, including four of the country's six biggest metropolitan areas where nearly 70 percent of Taiwan's people live.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on the other hand, saw its number of local government seats fall from seven to five, and it was swept out of power in the northern half of Taiwan. Following the election setback, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced she would step down as chairperson of the DPP, potentially creating uncertainty for the party 14 months ahead of Taiwan's next presidential election. Though numerically, the KMT entered Saturday's elections holding 14 seats and finished with 13, its victories in Taipei and Taoyuan more than compensated for its losses in the island counties of Penghu and Kinmen and in Miaoli County.
It will have a chance to win control of a 14th district when Chiayi City votes for its mayor on Dec. 18, in a race that incumbent Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) is favored to take. The race was postponed due to the death of one of the six candidates entered in the election. The big prize for the KMT was winning back Taipei eight years after Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the fledgling Taiwan People's Party (TPP) took over the city government in 2014, succeeding the KMT's Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who could not run for reelection after serving two four-year terms.
Mainland spokesperson comments on results of Taiwan's local elections
The Taipei 101 skyscraper commands the urban landscape in Taipei, Taiwan. [Photo/Xinhua]
The results of the local elections held in Taiwan Saturday revealed that the mainstream public opinion in the island is for peace, stability and a good life, a Chinese mainland spokesperson said.
The mainland will continue to work with people of Taiwan to promote peaceful and integrated development of cross-Strait relations, contribute to the wellbeing of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, firmly oppose "Taiwan independence" and foreign interference, and strive for bright prospects for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.
Zhu made the remarks when commenting on the results of Taiwan's local elections.
Taiwan’s Tsai says no backing down to Chinese aggression
Taiwan won’t back down in the face of “aggressive threats” from China, the president of the self-governing island democracy said Tuesday, comparing growing pressure from Beijing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tsai Ing-wen made the comment following a twice-a-decade congress of China’s Communist Party at which it upped its longstanding threat to annex the island it considers its own territory by force if necessary. The party added a line to its constitution on “resolutely opposing and deterring” Taiwan’s independence and “resolutely implementing the policy of ‘one country, two systems,’” the formula by which it plans to govern the island in the future.
The blueprint has already been put in place in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has seen its democratic system, civil liberties and judicial independence decimated in recent years. Speaking to an international gathering of pro-democracy activists in Taipei, Tsai said democracies and liberal societies are facing the greatest challenges since the Cold War.
Beijing-friendly KMT’s huge win in local elections does not mean Taiwan is pro-China
Kuomintang’s rising star Chiang Wan-an greeting members of the public on Nov 27 after winning the Taipei mayoral election. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
The Beijing-friendly opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) landslide victory over the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at Taiwan’s municipal elections on Saturday should not be interpreted as the island becoming more pro-China, experts said. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has hailed the election outcome as a sign that “mainstream public opinion” in Taiwan is for “peace, stability and a good life”. But analysts at the Economist Intelligence Unit said “a KMT victory will not represent a public rebuke of the DPP’s handling of issues across the Taiwan Strait”.
Officials elected at these midterm polls do not have direct say on foreign policy development – in contrast to the presidential election, which will be next held in 2024. “Midterm elections in Taiwan are primarily concerned with local issues and the personality of individual candidates,” said analysts at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Campaign issues can include a city’s road improvement work or a neighbourhood’s recycling efforts. Beijing, which has not ruled out force to take control of Taiwan, which it views as a breakaway province, is not a fan of the ruling DPP and has cut off communication channels with the island since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016.
The KMT traditionally favours warmer ties with Beijing, although it has strongly denied being pro-China. On Saturday, the opposition party claimed victory in 13 of the 21 city mayor and county chief seats up for grabs. The DPP’s five wins were its worst showing in its 36-year history. Independent candidates took two seats, while the upstart Taiwan People’s Party snagged one. Significantly, the KMT’s rising star Chiang Wan-an, 43, beat the DPP’s former health minister Chen Shih-chung, 68, by a significant margin to take the coveted Taipei mayoral seat.
Taiwan's local election results announced
Among the elected 21 county and city chief posts, the Chinese Kuomintang party won 13 seats, the Democratic Progressive Party landed five, the Taiwan People's Party landed one while the rest two went to independent candidates, according to the island's election affairs authority.
The election for the mayor of Chiayi City was postponed. The elections also chose county and city councilors, and township and village leaders.
Amid tensions with China, Taiwan shows off military drones
The Taiwanese flag is seen on the NCSIST Albatross medium UAV displayed at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in Taichung in central Taiwan on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Taiwan displayed its self-developed drone technology Tuesday, amid rising concerns over China's threats to use force to assert its claim to the self-governing island republic. (AP Photo/Walid Berrazeg)
Taiwan displayed its self-developed drone technology Tuesday, amid rising concerns over China’s threats to use force to assert its claim to the self-governing island republic.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, which develops military technology, offered a rare look at the Chien Hsiang drone designed to destroy enemy radars, and other unmanned combat aerial vehicles. A dozen of the single-use drones, officially termed loitering munitions, are carried on a truck. Launched with a built-in rocket, they are guided by a propeller engine before crashing into their targets.
Any country that is “confident in itself” will come up with strategies and develop defense technologies, said Chi Li-ping, director of the institute’s Aeronautical System Research Division. Unmanned combat aerial vehicles are “a future trend,” Chi said. “This is why we are doing research about it and laying out some strategies.”
