Taiwan’s 2016 Elections and Cross-Strait Relations (Jacques deLisle, FPRI)

When Taiwanese voters went to the polls on January 16, 2016, they did something that has become admirably routine in Taiwan’s robust democracy: mandating a change of the party in power and setting the stage for another peaceful transition of power between opposing political parties—the third since Taiwan began holding fully democratic presidential elections in 1996. This election was, however, different in some key respects: voters chose the first woman president of the ROC or any government in the Chinese-speaking world; cross-Strait relations were not a defining or central issue in the campaign or, apparently, for the electorate; and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won both the presidency and a solid majority in the Legislative Yuan—something that the Kuomintang (KMT) had enjoyed for the preceding eight years. The significance of the second of these novel features should not be overstated. Relations with the Mainland were more salient than the surface focus on issues of economic performance, inequality, pensions, housing affordability, and public health and safety may suggest. And cross-Strait questions will loom very large for President Tsai Ing-wen and a DPP-majority government’s prospects for success.

http://www.fpri.org/articles/2016/02/taiwans-2016-elections-and-cross-strait-relations