Treading Choppy Waters: Cross-Strait Relations in Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election

By  Pamela Kennedy Author

In China

This article was originally published in The Diplomat.

Taiwan’s contentious presidential race is over, and the incumbent, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party, has been re-elected with over 8 million votes, a record in Taiwan’s history.

With the ongoing Hong Kong protests and the barrage of fake news during the campaigns, the elections were about cross-strait relations more than any other issue. Voters went to the polls to decide between continuing Tsai’s arms-length policy approach to China or switching to rival candidate Han Kuo-yu’s proposal to renew relations across the strait. They overwhelmingly selected Tsai despite Beijing’s warning that cross-strait relations will worsen under a second Tsai administration. Clearly the voters in Taiwan have decided that if relations remain chilly, it will be because Beijing rebuffs Tsai’s cautious approach to cross-strait interactions.

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