Taiwan election: What you need to know
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16557209
The BBC news report:
Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou 'ahead in election'
Taiwan's incumbent President, Ma Ying-jeou, has taken a strong lead in the country's presidential election, with more than half the votes counted, TV reports say.
The election is likely to shape the island's key relationship with China.
Mr Ma, who is seeking his second term, is on 52%, seven points ahead of his main challenger, Tsai Ing-wen.
Mr Ma has greatly improved ties with China, but Ms Tsai says his approach could endanger Taiwan's sovereignty.
China regards the island as a breakaway province and wants unification.
A third contender, James Soong, has taken less than 3% of the votes cast, the TV reports said.
He is a former senior figure in Mr Ma's party, the Kuomintang (KMT), who observers say could take votes away from the incumbent.
Local election watchers are predicting a turnout of 76% to 80% of the more than 18m registered voters on the island.
Cross-strait relations
Taiwan has been suffering its worst economic downturn in decades and unemployment has been rising.
However, most voters still view relations with China as the most important issue.
During Mr Ma's presidency, regular direct flights and shipping links have been established with China and a landmark trade deal has been signed that cuts tariffs on hundreds of Taiwanese exports to the mainland.
Mr Ma, 61, says a vote for him is a vote for peace.
But some voters are concerned that Mr Ma's policies will pave the way for unification with the mainland.
"I feel calm and hopeful," said Hwang Shiu-mei, a mother of three who waited to vote at a polling station in Taipei.
"I hope we can see a win-win situation with China in the coming four years. We don't want to see a stalemate and hope for a better economy, along with peace and stabilility."
Ms Tsai and Mr Ma both cast their votes early in the capital.
"I'm very happy, I urge everyone to come out early and vote. This weather should help the voting rate," Mr Ma told reporters at his polling station in a Taipei church as the light rain eased.
Ms Tsai, casting her ballot at a school in a Taipei suburb, said she was prepared to become the first female president of Taiwan.
Asked for further details, she said: "I hope we will be able to give you a full explanation after the vote is counted."
Ms Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party favours Taiwan's formal independence from China.
Despite that, she has made overtures to the mainland, saying that she is not against negotiating with China on economic and other matters as long as it does not affect Taiwan's sovereignty.
Potential flashpoint
China nonetheless remains suspicious of her and her party.
Beijing has 1,500 missiles aimed at the island to deter any attempt to declare independence.
The United States, which is a key ally of Taiwan, will also be watching the outcome of the vote closely.
Under the Taiwan relations act passed by the US Congress in 1979, the US is obliged to come to the defence of the island if it is attacked by any other party.
While Washington has not openly endorsed Mr Ma, observers say it is an open secret that the US prefers his approach to China.
CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/taiwan-election/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Taiwan's expats seen as key in presidential poll
By Peter Shadbolt, CNN
January 14, 2012 -- Updated 0225 GMT (1025 HKT)
(CNN) -- As many as 200,000 people -- most of them mainland China-based Taiwanese - are expected to return to Taiwan this weekend for an election viewed as critical to the future of an economy that has boomed thanks to warmer ties with Beijing.
Taiwan does not allow absentee voting and the growing political clout of Taiwan's expatriate businessmen -- known as Taishang in Chinese -- will be a determining factor in elections that will set the tenor of the relationship with Beijing.
"Because of the closeness of the race, this election has the highest ever number of returnees," says Professor Ray-Kuo Wu of Fu Jen University, adding that estimates could be as high as 250,000 returnees. "Corporate bosses have mobilized their employees to participate in these elections like never before.
"Hon Hai Precision is chartering six planes to get people back to vote and Formosa Plastics Group is another company that is helping employees return for the election."
With memories of the 2008 election still fresh, when incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang Nationalist Party was returned with just 30,000 of the 13 million votes cast, the Taishang are concerned that a change of government could stall the lucrative rapprochement with Beijing.
Ma's chief opponent is Tsai Ying-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progress Party. Tsai has the chance to become the Taiwan's first female president, but her campaign to paint Ma's pro-Beijing policies as selling out Taiwan's sovereignty may cost her Taishang votes, analysts say.
"Taiwan is a democracy and, of course, the way that they vote remains to be seen," says Wu. "But the pro-business and pro-Beijing campaign is something of a double-edged sword. The opposition DPP has been able to paint the president as someone whose policies have only benefited the big corporations."
Although Taiwan is called the "Republic of China," and Taiwan has been de facto independent from the People's Republic of China since 1949 when the Kuomintang or Nationalist government lost the Chinese civil war and withdrew to Taiwan, Beijing considers the island a mere breakaway province.
China has never ruled out the use of force against Taiwan to achieve reunification. If China uses military force against the island the United States could intervene under the Taiwan Relations Act, raising fears of a much wider conflict.
Relations between Taiwan and Beijing softened in 2008 when the two governments opened trade, transport and postal services, allowing direct links for the first time. What had once been a daylong ordeal, where flights to Beijing had to be routed through Hong Kong, has become a short hop across the Taiwan Strait.
Tourism has strongly benefited, with 30% of the 6 million foreign visitors arriving in Taiwan coming from mainland China. Exports, meanwhile, are enjoying a bonanza, hitting a record US$115 billion, up 35% from a year earlier.
"Economically, it's been a big boost for Taiwan," says Wu.
For its part, mainland China, also drawn by the economic prospects of closer ties, has been content not to disturb the status quo, in marked contrast to earlier elections.
In 1996, it reacted angrily to the first direct presidential elections in Taiwan believing that the favorite to win that poll, Lee Teng-hui, was advocating a separate identity and formal statehood for what Beijing has always dubbed a 'renegade province.'
Prior to those elections, Beijing conducted missile tests in the Taiwan Strait aimed at intimidating voters and the United States moved two aircraft carriers into the region. Beijing's posturing created the opposite effect and Lee won the poll handsomely.
Since then, Beijing has taken a hands-off approach, not wanting to upset what is settling into a strong economic relationship.
"The Taiwanese government has stated that the election is their domestic affair and, so far, there has been nothing overt in terms of opposition from Beijing's side," says Wu.
Key to the current policy between Beijing and Taipei has been widespread support for the 1992 Consensus which enshrined the "One China principle." Under this agreement, both sides recognize there is only one China -- that both the mainland and Taiwan constitute China -- but it is up to each side to express their own definition of this.
"Traditionally business leaders have shied away from commenting on political issues," says Wu, adding that this election has been different in that Taishang have been more overtly partisan than in previous elections.
"But there's a recognition that there's a need to continue with the 1992 Consensus and that it's the best choice for Taishang in terms of the prosperity of Taiwan," he said.
The New York Times/
The International Herald Tribune
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/asia/taiwan-presidential-election.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Incumbent Ma Re-Elected as Taiwan’s President
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: January 14, 2012
TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected by a comfortable margin on Saturday, fending off a fierce challenge from his main rival, Tsai Ing-wen, who criticized his handling of the economy but also sought to exploit fears among voters that his conciliatory approach toward China was eroding the island’s sovereignty.
A second term for Mr. Ma is likely to please Beijing, which has matched his enthusiasm for cross-strait rapprochement with a variety of economic and trade pacts. During his tenure Taiwanese exports and investment on the mainland have soared; at home, the local economy has been buoyed by more than 3 million mainland tourists who began arriving shortly after his inauguration.
Those policies, and the wealth that flowed to exporters, helped solidify his support among business leaders and investors. More than 200,000 citizens who live and work in China returned home to vote, most of them taking the direct flights that Mr. Ma helped establish during his first year in office. Not surprisingly, many of the returnees were Ma supporters spurred by surveys that had showed him in a neck-and-neck bid for survival.
With more than 80 percent of the vote counted, The Associated Press reported that Mr. Ma, 61, of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, was leading Ms. Tsai, 55 of the Democratic Progressive Party, by about six percentage points. A third candidate, James Soong of the People First Party, who was expected to siphon off as much a tenth of the electorate from Mr. Ma, only received 2.8 percent of the vote, the AP reported.
It was the fifth presidential contest since Taiwan emerged from single-party rule in 1996.
Beijing had no immediate comment on Mr. Ma’s victory but Communist Party officials in recent months had made no secret of their antipathy toward Ms. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party, which has long championed political independence. Although Ms. Tsai had moderated her party’s stance in recent months, many voters recalled the eight years of President Chen Shui-bian of Democratic Progressive Party whose antagonism toward China soured relations. “What this election showed is that business interests in Taiwan now trump ideology ones,” said Edward I-hsin Chen, a political scientists at Tamkang University in Taipei. “There is no turning back on relations with China.”
Taiwan and China have been in a formal state of war since 1949, when the Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war and fled the mainland, establishing their rival Republic of China government in Taipei. In the ensuing decades, China has not budged on its overriding goal: to bring Taiwan back into the fold, even if it requires force.
Except for the eight years of Mr. Chen’s presidency, the Nationalists have governed the island, including four decades of martial law.
Since Mr. Ma’s election, China’s senior leaders have expended a great deal of political and economic capital trying to woo the island’s skeptical citizenry. The relatively close margin, however, highlights the deep divisions among an electorate still wary of China’s intentions.
Dealing with China may prove far more complicated during Mr. Ma’s second term, analysts say, because after the low-hanging fruits of trade and transportation pacts, Beijing may seek to tackle thorny political issues. “I think it’s clear that much of what has been accomplished has been a set of easy issues,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The upcoming agenda could include much tougher issues.”
The economic benefits from Mr. Ma’s first term have been pronounced. A landmark trade agreement between the two sides removed tariffs on hundreds of products, helping to boost Taiwan’s exports to China to $115 billion last year, a 35 percent from 2009. Spending by mainland tourists has pumped $3 billion into the local economy. Late fall, the first 1,000 mainland students began enrolling in local universities.
Much of the day-to-day campaign, however, focused on retail politics, with Ms. Tsai mining popular anxiety over the island’s slide from the heady 1990s, when reliably double-digit economic growth from high-tech manufacturing helped earn Taiwan a place among the so-called Asian Tigers.
High expectations among Taiwan’s people partly explain widespread dissatisfaction that persists despite an unemployment rate of 4.28 percent. Many here blame Mr. Ma for stagnant wages and a growing wealth gap that has made housing unaffordable for millions of middle-class Taiwanese.
But a plurality of voters appeared to side with Mr. Ma’s contention that improved relations with China were the island’s best hope for prosperity. Although she has no interest in unification, Chao Pei-nan, a housewife, 55, said there was nothing to be gained by alienating China. “Isolation will do us no good,” said Ms. Chao, who returned here from New Zealand last week to vote. “In fact, the closer we get to China, the more they will see the benefits of democracy and freedom and the better the chance we have to influence them.”
The Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/14/us-taiwan-election-idUSTRE80D07620120114
Taiwan's president wins re-election
(Reuters) - Taiwan's incumbent president was re-elected on Saturday as official tallies showed he held a near-unassailable lead in the vote-count and the opposition conceded defeat.
The result, which points to a continuation of the detente between Taiwan and China, should reassure both Beijing and Washington at a time of political transition for both superpowers.
The elections had been expected to be tight, but the Central Election Commission said that with most votes counted, the Nationalist Party's Ma Ying-jeou, who has fostered warmer ties with China, had about 51.5 percent of the vote versus about 45.7 percent for Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
"We have won," Ma, 61, shouted to supporters at party headquarters as they cheered and clapped in pouring rain.
"In the next four years, cross-strait relations will be more peaceful, with greater mutual trust and the chance of conflict will be less."
Tsai conceded defeat and said she was quitting as DPP party chief.
However, Ma's victory will be much reduced from the near 17-point margin he had over the DPP at the last election in 2008.
But the Nationalist Party was also projected to get a clear majority in parliament, which should give Ma a fillip in pushing through policy. Television said the Nationalists would get about 65 seats in the 113-member legislature, although that is also lower than the 81 seats they had in the outgoing house.
"We will continue to let economic growth flourish, protect cross-strait peace and friendly relations to achieve more concrete results in cooperation in important areas," said Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of the Nationalists.
But in an acknowledgement of the reduced majority, he added: "We need to discuss thoroughly the criticism the voters have handed to us."
Even early in the day, Ma radiated confidence.
"I see a little sunshine now," he told reporters as he cast his vote at a polling station in a Taipei church after a slight drizzle eased.
Opposition leader Tsai was also confident but appeared to have lost ground to the incumbent after a strong showing in the campaign because of perceptions that she was not as inclined to closer economic integration with China.
The DPP's independence-leaning stance has long angered Beijing, which deems Taiwan a renegade province and considers U.S. arms sales to the self-ruled island as the top obstacle to improved ties between the United States and China, now the world's two biggest economies.
Under Ma, the Nationalists have pursued detente with China -- closer economic ties while vowing not to declare independence nor seek unification.
A Ma victory should also go down well in the United States, which holds presidential elections later this year, as Washington would be keen to take at least one potential irritant in bilateral ties with China off the table.
SMOOTH VOTE
Like the run-up to the election, the voting was smooth. Unlike in 1996, when China fired missiles into waters off Taiwan before the island's first direct presidential election, Beijing has learnt to temper any response to avoid antagonizing voters into backing the DPP.
Nearly 200,000 Taiwanese returned from overseas for the poll according to local media reports, cramming flights in a last minute rush to cast ballots. In a measure of the easing ties with the mainland, most of them came over from China.
Ma and Tsai are both former law academics with doctorates from Harvard and the London School of Economics respectively. Tsai, the first woman to bid for Taiwan's presidency, appeared unable to press home her charges that Ma had pursued his pro-China policy with little regard to rising costs of living and a widening income gap at home.
"Ma has lost a lot of votes," said former DPP legislator Wenjia Luo. "But the people's dissatisfaction was not enough to make him lose the election."
A third presidential candidate, former Nationalist party member James Soong who now leads a splinter party, trailed far behind with around 2.8 percent of the vote.
A Ma win is likely to provide a short-term boost to Taiwan's stock market and the Taiwan dollar when markets reopen on Monday, analysts have said. Many economists see stronger ties with China's vast markets as vital for Taiwan's heavily export-dependent economy because of the slowdown elsewhere in the world.
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jonathan Thatcher)
On the following webpages are four videos, one of which is from CNN, and the other three from the Reuters. Listen to the English. It's easy to understand.
China and U.S. watching Taiwan elections:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/taiwan-election/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Job trump Beijing for Taiwan youth vote: http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/01/09/jobs-trump-beijing-for-taiwan-youth-vote?videoId=228177048&videoChannel=101
Taiwanese cast votes for president: http://www.reuters.com/article/video/idUSTRE80D07620120114?videoId=228579115
Taiwan presidential elections neck-and-neck: http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/01/14/taiwan-presidential-elections-neck-and-n?videoId=228581715&videoChannel=1
沒有留言:
張貼留言