President Tsai Ing-wen should summon up the courage to be the progressive Taiwan’s young voters put into power in 2016, or risk the collapse of the DPP’s reform project.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/26
By: Roy Ngerng
Credit: Reuters / TPG
Taiwan’s local election results are a shock to the progressives.
Like in the United States, a two-party system has led to the majority of voters swinging from one party to another as a form of punishment to the ruling party.
It is not that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had performed that badly. Under the DPP, unemployment has gone down to its lowest in 18 years, average wages have grown to be higher than that of 2000 for the first time, and Taiwan’s businesses are returning to Taiwan, as shown by falling investments in China over the last two years, partly fueled by the trade wars spearheaded by the Trump administration.
However, none of these factors have been felt by the average Taiwanese. Unemployment might have dropped, but many youths have also left for overseas jobs, and wages continue to be low, as compared to the other Asian Tigers. For a Taiwanese population who remembers being on par with South Korea, it is not acceptable that they have fallen behind. [FULL STORY]
