2020 Elections: Tsai’s win ‘motivating’ to some Chinese

‘POWERFUL MESSAGE’: Chinese pro-democracy activists used to misjudge Taiwan, but have become more inclined toward its democratic values, a Chinese academic said

By Wu Su-wei and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer





President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) landslide election victory shows Taiwanese’s determination to maintain democratic values, and would greatly motivate China’s pro-democracy activists, a Chinese academic said yesterday.

Wu Renhua (吳仁華), a Chinese historian who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, made the remarks at a forum in Taipei organized by the New School for Democracy, during which overseas Chinese shared their views and observations on Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.

Wu said that Taiwan’s exemplification of democracy would greatly influence Chinese pro-democracy activists, who used to misunderstand the nation.

New School For Democracy chairman Tseng Chien-yuan, center, accompanied by exiled Chinese democracy activists Zhou Fengsuo, right, Wu Renhua, second right, and others speaks at a seminar in Taipei yesterday on how Saturday’s election was perceived by overseas Chinese. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

An increasing number of Chinese activists have come to realize that while unification and independence are one issue, democracy and totalitarianism are another, and have become more inclined toward the democratic values of Taiwan, rather than the totalitarianism of the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) triumph goes beyond the party and extends to the entire population in Taiwan, Chinese political commentator Ren Songlin (任松林) said, adding that he used to believe that many Taiwanese did not feel as if the nation could face an “impending doom,” but the election results show that the voices for democracy are louder than ever.

According the Central Election Commission, Tsai, of the DPP, received 8.17 million votes, or 57.13 percent of all valid ballots cast, while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), received 5.52 million, or 38.61 percent of the votes. The third presidential candidate, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), received 608,590 votes, or 4.26 percent.

Tsai received highest number of votes ever recorded for a candidate in a presidential election in Taiwan, breaking the previous record of 7.66 million votes received by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT in 2008.

The number of votes in favor of Tsai sent a powerful message to Beijing that Taiwanese demand the right to determine their own future, said University of Westminster academic Shao Jiang (邵江), who was one of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests.

“It is like Hong Kong people’s protests for universal suffrage, which taught the world a great lesson of the importance of perseverance,” he said. “The longer the fight is, the better,” because it is time earned, so that the global community can “leverage its power against the Chinese empire and its totalitarianism.”