The candidates in the race
For the Independence Party Dpp William Lai Ching, on the list with Hsiao Bi-kim, another determined woman to succeed outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, is leading the polls to win a third mandate, this time in favor of the maximalist wing She is well-rooted in “her” constituencies in the south and resisting the sirens of the People's Republic of China, which she will resort to in the event of victory to form the new government.
The main competitor, candidate of the Nationalist Party Kuomintangis Hou Yu-Ih, a former policeman without the typical pedigree of this military aristocracy, who, after losing the civil war, sought refuge on the beautiful island of Formosa, as the Portuguese explorers called it, taking with him the treasures forbidden to the city, namely in such quantities that they even had to be stored in the basement of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Taiwan is going to the election, here are the main candidates
His victory was unlikely, despite the fact that the Kuomintang is a resource-rich party and is certainly more aligned with the 1992 Consensus, which in the past guaranteed more balanced relations with Beijing but was apparently omitted by Tsai Ing-wen in her inauguration speech . on May 20, 2016.
Tsai did not mention the principle of “One China”, which caused an uproar that was made even greater by the call of American President Donald Trump, who called her to congratulate her: since 1979, the United States has actually recognized Beijing and not Taipei, the People's Republic, of China and not of the Republic of China.
In the middle of the two contenders is Ko Wen-je, in politics for five years, former head of the Taipei metropolitan region, former doctor, a loose-witted fool steeped in populism who is playing with it alone Tpp founded by him, vacillating between paying homage to Mao Zedong, but not too much.