(MENAFN- Asia Times) Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, fresh off a resounding setback at local elections on Saturday, is seeking new strategies to maintain its ruling status at the 2024 presidential election where incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen's chances look increasingly doubtful.
Taiwanese commentators said Tsai's tough stance vis-a-vis mainland China backfired at the elections as voters were worried concerned about economic problems than geopolitical posturing. DPP's won five out of 22 counties and independent cities up for grabs, down from the seven it now controls.
The DPP lost in three key industrial cities including Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Keelung but won in Penghu. The rival Kuomintang (KMT), which favors eventual unification with mainland China, lost in western counties including Miaoli, Kinmen and Penghu but won three key cities – Taipei, Taoyuan and Keelung.
Chiang Wan-an, the great-grandson of late KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek, won the mayorship of Taipei. The KMT won in 13 counties and cities including three major northern cities and is expected to win one more, Chiayi City, in a postponed election to be held on December 18.
The opposition party won in 15 counties and cities in 2018. But in 2020, it lost control of Kaohsiung as mayor Han Kuo-yu was removed by voters in a recall vote.
Although pundits say it's too early to predict that the DPP will lose the presidential election in January 2024, Tsai – repeating a gesture she had made following an earlier local election defeat – fell on her sword by resigning as party chairperson.
In 2018, Tsai had similarly stepped down from the party-chief position after the number of counties and cities controlled by the DPP fell to six from 13. But after she won the presidential election in 2020, she resumed her role as DPP chief.
Tseng Kuan-Chiu, a professor at the Department of Civic Education and Leadership at the National Taiwan Normal University, said Tsai must take responsibility for the local elections setback as she had approved the DPP's candidates.
Tseng said many commentators analyzed the election results from a political perspective but he thought that the DPP was defeated simply because voters were frustrated by high inflation. He said most workers who have not received pay raises have suffered immensely from higher prices of food and necessities.
Shen Yu-Chung, a professor at the Department of Political Science at Tunghai University, said the DPP's“resist China and protect Taiwan” slogan did not resonate at the grassroots, including among youth voters who shied from the polls.
Shen said voters were unmoved by the Tsai-led government's successful handling of Covid or by Taiwan's rising international position as a democratic bulwark against China. He said the DPP must launch new economic policies in order to win in 2024.
The local election campaigns focused on more politicized matters such as whether a politician's academic qualifications were genuine or not.
Lin Chih-chien of the DPP resigned in July from his position as the Hsinchu City mayor after being ensnared in a plagiarism scandal. Former legislator Ann Kao, representing the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), became the city's mayor in the local elections on Saturday.
In Beijing, Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the self-governing island's election results showed that the Taiwanese people wanted peace and prosperity. She said Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be“reunify” with the mainland, will keep connecting with those who oppose Taiwan independence.
China has made its disapproval of Tsai's leadership patently clear. Last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent about 150 fighter jets into Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone ahead of her October 10 speech in Taipei marking the 110th anniversary of the Republic of China.
Political tensions between Taiwan and China have intensified as US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have despite talks failed to agree on Taiwan-related issues – though Biden did say he did not think a Chinese invasion was imminent during their summit at the G20 in Bali. Xi did not take questions from the press at the event.
In August, the PLA launched a three-day military exercise near Taiwan in a threatening response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island. It's not clear if that intimidation had any bearing on the DAP's poor and KMT's strong election performance.
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