Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwanese began voting in midterm local elections yesterday seen as a referendum on the independence-leaning administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, amid growing pressure from the island’s powerful rival China.
The elections that follow Tsai’s landslide victory in 2016 will decide the races for 22 mayors and county magistrates along with thousands of local officials.
Driven from power two years ago, the opposition Nationalists, known also as the KMT, hope to regain territory from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party by emphasizing their pro-business image and a more accommodating line toward Beijing.
Since her election in 2016, Tsai has walked a fine line on relations with China, maintaining Taiwan’s de facto independent status that the vast majority of Taiwanese support, while avoiding calls from the more radical elements of her party for moves to declare formal separation from the mainland.
China has been ratcheting-up pressure on the island it claims as its own territory by poaching away its diplomatic partners, cutting official contacts and staging threatening military exercises.
China resents Tsai for her refusal to endorse its stance that the self-governing island democracy is a part of the Chinese nation.