Commentary
Taiwan has been one of America’s key allies in deterring Communist China’s power expansion since the end of World War II. But the failure of the ruling pro-independence party in recent local elections showed that even with U.S. political and military backing, the Taiwanese people’s concerns over a potential Chinese military invasion may have swayed election results in favor of Taiwan’s pro-China unification party.
Several weeks after Taiwan’s 2022 local elections, most analyses attributed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s losses to local issues, such as the spillover effect of a scandal involving a candidate’s fake degree, mismanagement of COVID-19 vaccine purchasing strategies, environmental issues, and a lack of transportation infrastructure….