BH

The issue that always looms large in Taiwanese politics is independence versus unification. There are still left and right issues at stake, such as LGBT rights, the economy, labor rights, racial issues, and so forth. But when it comes to the election, historically it is still independence versus unification that has been the main political cleavage in Taiwanese politics.

The KMT, which was in power for many decades, is the conservative establishment and supports unification with China. The Democratic Progressive Party, which I would not really call a left force today, was much more left-wing in the past. The Taiwanese democracy movement was influenced by the global New Left. However, the DPP has become increasingly conservative on many issues. One can see this in the DPP undoing decades of labor reforms in late 2017, or the opposition of elements of the party to gay marriage, for example.

Even so, the DPP can be an ideological mix sometimes. Historically, the DPP has had some members and candidates who were unusually politically radical, including people with labor or environmental activism backgrounds. Even now, it is running many politicians who came out of social movements. For example, the number two in the party list is a prominent left-wing member of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, an environmental group, and the founder of the Social Democratic Party is the number three candidate.

There is a broader history of social movement activists becoming electoral candidates in Taiwan, though they are often accused of having sold out the movement, or simply used movements as a means of building political capital for future electoral campaigns. But over the past year politicians from third parties that emerged after the 2014 Sunflower Movement, who originally hoped to establish a “Third Force” in Taiwanese politics separate from both the DPP and KMT, are aligning with the DPP or directly joining the DPP. This is sort of a united front strategy against the KMT, which seemed resurgent in last year’s elections. It remains to be seen how successful this strategy will be.

Broadly speaking, the political left has been pro-independence; their notion of independence was historically shaped, particularly in the postwar period, by the wave of anticolonial uprisings across the world, as well as elements of Leninist conceptions of self-determination.