Dr. T.Y. Wang, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics and Government, presented a co-authored paper at the 2021 American Political Science Association annual meeting. The paper, “Threat Perception and Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election,” was presented virtually.
Employing the theory of threat and panel data collected in Taiwan, the research shows that Chinese leaders’ threatening tone and their repressive responses to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong have heightened Taiwan citizens’ threat perception. As a result, there has been a growing awareness of “today’s Hong Kong would be tomorrow’s Taiwan” prior to the country’s 2020 presidential election. The analysis reveals that those who possessed a high level of threat were more likely to reject Beijing’s unification plan, and as a result, they were also more likely to vote for the pro-independence incumbent, President Tsai Ing-wen.
