UCLA Taiwan in the World Lecture
Nathan Batto (Academia Sinica)
Moderated by Shih-chan Dai (UCLA)
The UCLA Taiwan in the World lecture series aims to promote Taiwan studies and disseminate knowledge about Taiwan in a global context and shed light on Taiwan’s political economy, international relations, and US-Taiwan-China relations, as well as Taiwan’s society, political system, social structure, and institutions. This series is organized by Taiwan in the World postdoctoral fellow Shih-chan Dai.
The 2022 local elections in Taiwan are considered the midterm election for President Tsai Ing- wen’s second term. The results of this election reflect the level of popular support for the Tsai administration as well as people’s satisfaction with the Democratic Progressive Party as a ruling party that controls both the executive and legislative branches. Therefore, the outcome of the 2022 local elections becomes an important indicator for both the pan-Blue and pan-Green coalitions in shaping their electoral strategies in the coming 2024 presidential and legislative elections. Given the importance of the 2022 Taiwanese local elections, the speaker will analyze the implications of the elections from the following perspectives: the relative strengths of the two major parties, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elections, the performance of third parties such as Taiwan People’s Party, and the potential impacts of the 2022 elections on Taiwan-US-China relations and the 2024 national elections.