Taiwan Ruling Party Defeated in Local Elections

In the mayoral and city council elections that took place in Taiwan, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was soundly defeated by the opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT). The DPP now controls only 5 out of the 21 local government offices, whereas the KMT won key mayoral races in Taipei, Taoyuan and Keelung. The DPP has aggressively promoted tensions between Beijing and Taipei, as part of the oligarchs’ plans to threaten China with destabilization.

Once the results were announced Nov. 26, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the party, but will continue to serve as President until the next elections in 2024, in which she will not run due to term limitations. KMT Chairman Eric Chu stated after the victory that his party will insist on protecting democracy and freedom, and will work hard to keep regional peace.

On the distinctions between local and national elections, it is worth recalling that the DPP, after winning the 2016 presidency, saw similarly poor results in the 2018 local elections, before securing a major victory in 2020, including Tsai’s re-election to lead the island. Her stance toward mainland China is relatively moderate, compared to Vice President Lai, for example, who is more strongly in favor of independence.

It is worth noting that the Taiwan election results were scarcely mentioned in Western mainstream media. But on the same weekend, the news was dominated by overblown reports on the demonstrations held in various Chinese cities against the government’s anti-COVID policy. The number of demonstrators was very small, compared to the total population, which led some trade-unionists and other activists in Europe to comment that they would be delighted if the media would report on the protest movements here in the same proportion.