“This election is a choice between support for democracy and the fall towards communism” chanted William Lai a few months ago in front of a won over crowd. The candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), favorite in the polls, is the bête noire of Xi Jinping, and is playing his last bastion card against the Chinese oppressor. Facing him, the Kuomintang supports a more conciliatory line towards Beijing, convinced that this would appease tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
For Valérie Niquet, a victory for one or the other “wouldn’t change much”. Contrary to popular belief, considering this election as a duel between a pro-China candidate and an anti-China candidate, the senior researcher at the FRS (Foundation for Strategic Research) recalls that the DPP is “reasonable enough not to demand independence”, and that the Kuomintang “very marked by the Hong Kong example, would not favor a reunification process”. The specialist also prefers to use the word “conquest” to that of “reunification”, because Taiwan has never been administered by the People’s Republic of China.
The island of 24 million inhabitants in any case frightens Xi Jinping’s China with the quality of its political openness. In his “democracy index” published in 2022, The Economist even places Taiwan in 10th place in the world. Remember that France is in 22nd place. The issue of the presidential election, and its consequences for the stability of the region, is the subject of our long video format, to be discovered here, or on all our social networks.