Taipei Times
Date: Jan 12, 2020

PUBLIC SUPPORT REBUILT:The Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen won the presidential vote in 16 of the nation’s counties and municipalities, with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Han Kuo-yu taking the vote in just six — Hsinchu, Miaoli, Hualien, Taitung, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties    [SOURCE]

2020 Elections

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 10 January, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Taiwan is holding an election on Saturday, and Taiwanese people are not the only ones who will be paying close attention to the results. Hong Kongers, too, are taking notice.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has wished Taiwan the best of luck as the countdown to Election Day nears its end. Wong said that Taiwan would be a source of support for Hong Kong if its voters show they refuse to bow to Beijing. Taiwan’s opposition party, the KMT is seen as being China-friendly, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is more wary of Beijing.
[FULL  STORY]

UPI News
Date: Jan. 10, 2020
By: Thomas Maresca

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Jan. 10 (UPI) — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called on voters to turn out to the polls in order to protect democracy at a mass rally Friday on the eve of national elections.

"Tomorrow we have to let everyone see that we are protecting this fortress of democracy in the world," she said before cheering crowds who waved flags and chanted slogans such as "2020 Let's Win!"

Tsai is facing off against challenger Han Kuo-yu of the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT) Party, and has framed this election as a referendum on Taiwan's continuing sovereignty from an increasingly assertive China. She has been leading in polls by wide margins.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/10
By: By JOHNSON LAI and ELAINE KURTENBACH , Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Further deadlock and heightened pressure from China is the likely outcome if Taiwan's independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen wins a second term this weekend, as is widely predicted.

Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party, was leading by a comfortable margin in most polls before the standard blackout period on surveys was imposed 10 days before Saturday's election.

In a distribution center in Xindian district in New Taipei City on Friday, school teachers and other volunteers were busy preparing stacks of ballots and other election paraphernalia for distribution to the polling centers.

“We are here to maintain security and make sure no one smuggles out any printed ballot forms," said Chu Kuo-hong, deputy chief of Xindian district police station.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/10/2020
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Jan. 10 (CNA) Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou (郭台銘) on Friday urged voters to support the smaller People First Party (PFP) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in Saturday's legislative elections, but he did not publicly endorse a presidential candidate.

Speaking in front of 5,000 supporters rallying for PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who is running for president, Gou urged the crowd to vote for either the PFP or the TPP for legislative seats to check and balance the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Gou, founder of Taiwanese manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., said there must be a third voice in the Legislature to exercise influence and prevent the DPP from continuing its dominance of Taiwan's politics.

The DPP currently holds the presidency and has a big majority in the Legislative Yuan, giving it complete control of the main levers of power in Taiwan's government.    [FULL  STORY]

ELECTION DAY: After polling stations close at 4pm, votes for president are to be tallied first, regional/Aboriginal legislator votes counted next and political party votes tallied last

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 11, 2020
By: Huang Hsin-po  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

To ensure that today’s presidential and legislative elections proceed in an orderly fashion, people may

not canvass for votes for any political party or candidate, including on social media, the Central Election Commission (CEC) reiterated yesterday, adding that offenders would face a fine.

Article 56-2 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) prohibits people on election day from canvassing for votes, distributing election-related flyers, sending text messages, putting up posters, raising flags that bear candidates’ slogans or portraits, broadcasting from campaign vehicles or loitering near polling stations in clothing bearing candidates’ names, the commission said.

Offenders would be reported by polling station supervisors to the commission’s board of supervisors and would face a fine of NT$500,000 to NT$5 million (US$16,656 to US$166,561), with repeat fines possible if offenders refuse to comply, the commission said.

If people hand out water or other beverages to voters on behalf of a candidate or party, they would be stopped by polling supervisors, the commission added.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 09 January, 2020
By: Paula Chao

On New Year's Day, some protesters in Hong Kong set fire to show their dissatisfaction. (CNA photo)[/caption] The protests in Hong Kong, which started last summer, have shown no signs of abating, taking place even on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. So why are Hong Kongers angry with their government? What are their demands? And why do protestors say “Today’s Hong Kong is Tomorrow’s Taiwan”?

In June 2019, over a million people hit the streets of Hong Kong to protest a proposed Chinese extradition law, which was withdrawn four months later. That figure – an estimate of organizers – represents about one-seventh of the city’s population of 7.5 million.

The protests began in the afternoon on Sunday, June 9th with a 3km march to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building. The crowd did not disperse until the early hours of Monday morning.  

If passed, the bill would allow authorities to extradite suspects from Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong officials say they would have final say over who gets extradited.    [FULL  STORY]

Reaction.life
Date: 9 January 2020
By: Eva Moody

“Is Taiwan possessed by evil spirits?” demanded the Kuomintang (KMT) party presidential candidate Han Guo-yu after a military helicopter crashed last week, killing eight military personnel on-board. The bombastic and confrontational Mayor of Kaohsiung is challenging the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen for the presidency. Superstitions run deep on this self-governing island, yet Han’s blatant attempt to exploit a national crisis to attack Tsai for bringing Taiwan “bad luck” has been the latest in a series of distasteful gaffes that will likely cost him the election.

Taiwan goes to the polls this weekend in presidential and legislative elections that will determine the future not only of its 24 million inhabitants, but also play a decisive role in the rapidly deteriorating relations between the world’s two superpowers. While Beijing explicitly backs the KMT, Washington’s foreign policy establishment unofficially favours the DPP.

For the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong’s victory over Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang continues to be the founding historical narrative upon which the party’s political legitimacy is based. Chiang and his army in 1949 were forced to retreat to Taiwan, where the KMT ruled until the island elected its first DPP president in 2000. Beijing’s memory of Mao’s victory is tarnished by this loss of Taiwan. Every Chinese leader since Mao has supported the cause of re-unification with Taiwan, but none as vociferously as Xi Jinping. He has made re-unification a central goal for his presidency, intermittently dispatching warships to pass through the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate his intent.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan KMT candidates hold 'Tsai Ing-wen is pro-China and bootlicks the CCP declaration' press conference

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/09
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kuomintang (KMT) legislative candidate Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), KMT Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), and New Party Taipei City Councilor Hou Han-ting (侯漢廷) on Wednesday (Jan. 8) bizarrely accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and fellow party members of being "pro-China and bootlicking the Chinese Communist Party" (親中舔共).

In retaliation for a recent statement issued by the Hsinchu City branch of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which criticized the three for "leaning toward China and bootlicking the Chinese Communist Party" (傾中舔共), they held their own "Tsai Ing-wen is pro-China and bootlicks the Chinese Communist Party declaration" press conference on Wednesday.

Cheng, who is running to represent Hsinchu City in the legislature, said the DPP is hypocritical when it comes to Communist China ties by some of its own members. Cheng then called out DPP legislative candidate Cheng Hung-huei (鄭宏輝) for having the campaign slogan "Protect Taiwan," but listing the location of a company he set up as "Taiwan, China."

Cheng said his opponent smeared him and his colleagues as "leaning toward China and bootlicking the Chinese Communist Party." He said for the sake of renminbi (Chinese money), his opponent has given up Taiwan's sovereignty by using the term "Taiwan, China."    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/09/2020

Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) An opposition Kuomintang (KMT) official accused of involvement in an alleged plot to have a self-professed Chinese defector retract his claims about spying for China on Thursday held a press conference to try to clarify his role in events, just two days before Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections.

In a report published Wednesday by Australian newspaper The Age, Alex Tsai (蔡正元), deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT), was said to have tried to induce self-confessed Chinese spy Wang Liqiang (王立強) to retract claims he assisted Beijing in influencing Taiwan's elections.

In the report, the newspaper cited anonymous sources with knowledge of events as saying that Wang received messages on Christmas Eve and the days after, asking him to record and release a video saying that Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has bribed him to lie.

Wang was told that his family would be spared punishment and his debts be repaid if he gave a public statement retracting his previous claims of spying for China, according to the report.
[FULL  STORY]