Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics and Government T.Y. Wang recently published a commentary on Taiwan’s upcoming 2020 presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan Insight, the online magazine of the Taiwan Studies Programme, University of Nottingham.
Titled “China Factor and Taiwan’s 2020 Election and Beyond,” Wang argued that like previous elections, the shadow of China looms over the island country’s politics. In a three-way race, the pro-independence incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen—who won a landslide victory to become the island country’s first female president in 2016—is seeking a second term. Chinese leaders’ coercive policies have hardened the island citizens’ resistance and revived Tsai’s electoral prospects. A decisive victory for Tsai would only show the failure of Beijing’s policy toward Taiwan and have significant implications for future cross-Strait relationship.
