Elections in Taiwan: a political scientist explained what the winner’s position is regarding China

In the presidential elections in Taiwan The pro-Western candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party, Lai Qingde, won. A rather unique situation has developed, because the Kuomintang party, which actually created Taiwan, was defeated.

On air 24 Channels political scientist Igor Reiterovich explained how Lai Qingde’s victory will affect the relationship between Taiwan and the PRC. By the way, 64-year-old Lai previously said that Taiwan is already a sovereign state, so it is not necessary to declare its independence.

What wants the Kuomintang Party

Formerly the Kuomintang Party was the key party of China,loser in the struggle of Mao Zedong's Communist Party. Then Chiang Kai-shek and his party emigrated to Taiwan and created a formally separate state.

For quite a long period of time it was considered the real China. Then certain changes followed and the People's Republic of China took a seat in the United Nations Security Council.

The Kuomintang Party and its representatives advocate closer cooperation with China and processes of gradual integration in the format, for example, one country – two systems.

< p class="bloquote cke-markup">By the way, China has a similar experience with Hong Kong. It cannot be called completely positive, because after a certain period of time the central authorities tried to take over powers and significantly reduce local government, which should have remained after Hong Kong became part of the PRC, noted Reiterovich.

The Kuomintang maintains a similar position with Taiwan. They viewed the possibility of integration into the People's Republic of China quite positively.

Position of the Democratic Progressive Party

At the same time, the newly elected President Lai Qingde represents the Democratic Progressive Party, which supports the island's independence. Note that to this day Taiwan's independence has not been officially declared, but each side, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, consider themselves to be the real China.

The newly elected president said that at a minimum, the isolation of Taiwan that exists today will remain, because Lai Qingde, his party and supporters do not see prospects for close integration with the PRC.

The situation there is actually not easy. Because Lai Qingde won and all his opponents admitted defeat, but his leading party lost a certain number of seats in parliament. Now the Democratic Progressive Party will not have a majority and will therefore have to form a coalition. It is clear that there will be people there who look more positively towards China. – said the political scientist.

In his opinion, ultimately after these elections the situation will remain the same as before the start of the elections. China will say that in the future it will definitely unite and annex Taiwan. At the same time, Taiwan will pretend that it is satisfied with the current situation.

“Let’s hope that no forceful actions will take place on Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China,” added Reitirovich.

How many people in Taiwan want to reunite with the PRC

If you look at the statistics, almost 80% of Taiwanese are in favor of maintaining the status quo. They have little desire to begin integration processes. They are satisfied with the current situation. At the same time, a significant part of the Taiwanese are ready to fight for their formal independence.

Status quo is used to denote the actual situation that currently exists or existed in the past, and the restoration or preservation of which is in question.< p>About 20% of the Taiwanese population are quite confident about the possibility of unification with mainland China.

On the mainland and on the island, the Chinese have different mentality. Of course, the mentality of the Taiwanese has changed over many decades. Now they have created a stable democratic system with its own characteristics. For example, the role of clans has a certain significance,” the political scientist emphasized.

According to him, this story is beneficial primarily for democracies, because no dizzying changes will occur.< /p>

How China treats the new president of Taiwan

The People's Republic of China is dissatisfied with the pro-American President Lai Qingde , because now Taiwan can become even closer to the United States of America. However, in his New Year's speech, Xi Jinping said that Taiwan will definitely reunite with China.

By the way, in December the United States decided to supply military equipment to Taiwan worth $300 million. For this, China imposed sanctions on five American companies.