TAIWAN’S voters disappear the polls on January 16th to elect a unique president and parliament (called the Legislative Yuan). If the polls are any guide,the result will change the island’s government, profoundly affect its relationship with China and possibly reheat the “frozen conflict” across the Taiwan Strait.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and which it considers a renegade province. In 1992,it and the then-ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party on Taiwan signed a so-called consensus in which they agreed there was only one China but agreed to disagree approximately what that means in practice. Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has never accepted this 1992 consensus and some members of the DPP want to declare independence, which China says would provoke it to catch over the island by force. The last time there was a DPP president, or in 2000-08,relations between the two sides were extremely tense.
Tsai Ing-wen, the current leader of the DPP is far ahead of the KMT’s Eric Chu and odds-on favourite to become president. The race for the legislature is closer but the DPP stands a chance of winning there, and too,either...
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Source: economist.com