Taiwan's Elections Could Change the World

#PEPTMicroBlog

Taiwan is headed for its Presidential Election on the 13th of January 2024. It could be the island’s most consequential contest yet. Looming large over the polls, is the spectre of intensifying US-China rivalry. Taiwan has become caught in a tug-of-war between the two superpowers. The main presidential candidates have made their positions on US and China relations a key part of their campaign messaging.

Meanwhile, across the strait, Chinese President Xi Jinping wants the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of invading the island by 2027, in the middle of the next Taiwan President’s term. There are also troubles on the domestic front. An export slump, stagnant wages, and inflation have created the slowest economic growth in eight years. It will be up to the next leader to turn the ship around.

The People's Republic of China claims the former Japanese colony as part of Chinese territory. Taiwan's Republic of China government, which retreated to Taipei in 1949 after a civil war defeat to the Communist Party now ruling from Beijing, says it rightfully reclaimed the island from Imperial Japan after World War II.

19.54 million people—83 percent of Taiwan's population—will be eligible to vote, including 1.03 million possible first-timers, according to the Central Election Commission in Taipei. At stake are the promise of myriad social reforms, the future of Taiwan's economic and energy policies, and, as always, its relationship with neighboring China, balanced against its decades-long closeness with America.

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