Dr. T.Y. Wang, ISU University Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics and Government, has published a co-authored book chapter on “Identity and Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election.” 

Employing recently collected survey data, the study shows that Taiwan citizens’ sense of threat has been sensitized by the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s January 2019 policy speech and by Beijing’s forceful responses to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. As a result, citizens with a Taiwanese identity provided strong support for pro-independence incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, giving her a landslide victory. The findings have important policy implications for the cross-Strait relationship as the employment of threats is not always effective.

The collected volume entitled Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election: The Beginning of a New Era was published by Wunan Publishing Company in Taipei, Taiwan.