Bloomberg Business Week Reports “Frayed in Taiwan” by Matthew Campbell Bloomberg Businessweek January 13, 2020 pp 34-39
Most in Taiwan prefer some form of “Status Quo” be it, ranked by lowest to highest percentage, status quo now with independence eventually, status quo now with unification later, status quo indefinitely or status quo-decision later. A minority, about 5-6%, are wanting independence ASAP. The 2020 election pitted incumbent Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against Han Kuo-yu of Kuomintang (KMT) the former commented on the campaign trail “We don’t aim to conquer the universe. Taiwanese people just want to use their own power to protect sovereignty and safeguard democracy. The danger to both is evident in Hong Kong”. Han and the KMT being more aligned with unification lost the election 38.6% or 5.5 million votes to Tsai 57.1% or 8.2 million votes. Taiwan is benefitting from two Trump initiatives; an $8B deal supplying F-16s for Taiwan’s defense and Chinese tariffs, not applicable to Taiwan, will likely move some manufacturing over from the mainland.