This Friday was eagerly awaited on the island of Taiwan, as the deadline for registering candidates for the January presidential elections ended that day. Elections in two months on the East Asian island, which is entangled by multiple powers, are seen as a directional election: President Tsai Ing-wen’s ruling Progressive Party (DPP) term is expiring. It is not just in Beijing that people are watching like a hawk to see whether the more Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT), with its main candidate, Hou Yu-ih, can regain power after eight years in opposition, or whether the DPP, with the main candidate, William Lai, the current vice president, remains in power.
