Taiwan's election brews trouble for China

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou stepped down as chairman of the ruling party after his Kuomingtang (KMT) faced a crushing defeat in local elections this past weekend, a referendum on the party’s pro-China policies. The rise of the Democratic Progressive Party (D.P.P), which supports Taiwan independence, is one more headache for Beijing as democracy protests continue in Hong Kong.

Ma, who is halfway through his second four-year term as president, took the blame for the defeat as his popularity has waned in the past few years. Last April, 500,000 students protested Ma’s trade deal with China, fearing government-backed Chinese companies would crush competition in Taiwan.

“I am not reluctant to give up this post,” said Ma, who has held his party’s leadership position for nine years. “What I truly care about is what’s best for the Koumintang.” Although no longer heading up the party, Ma will continue in his role as president. The KMT has a difficult fight ahead of it as voters return to the polls in 2016 for presidential elections.

D.P.P., the opposition party, won control of 13 of the 22 provinces and municipalities, while KMT won only six. Independent candidates backed by the D.P.P. won the rest, including the capital of Taipei, a longtime KMT stronghold. In the aftermath of the election, Premier Jiang Yi-huah and Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chung resigned, along with 80 members of the Cabinet.

Since coming into power in 2008, Ma has worked to improve relations with Beijing, resulting in 20 cross-strait agreements, increased trade, and direct flights between China and Taiwan. But young Taiwanese fail to see the island’s economy improving and fear increased economic integration between the two could lead to an eventual political unification.

Some worry that as Taiwan increases its dependence on China, China can wield greater influence in the land and place freedoms in jeopardy. Distrust is already high as China launches daily cyber attacks on Taiwan’s national security infrastructure to gather information for negotiations. China claims Taiwan as its territory, having vowed to take it by force if necessary. But Beijing’s preferred plan of action is to use the “one country, two systems” policy currently deployed in Hong Kong to bring Taiwan into its fold.

But months-long Occupy Central protests over Beijing’s screening of Hong Kong’s candidates for chief executive in the 2017 election revealed the mainland will not embrace full democracy, which Taiwan has enjoyed since the 90s.

“Hong Kong consolidated Taiwan voter worries about relations with mainland China,” said Kweibo Huang, associate professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei. China has largely censored the protests from its own citizens, while calling protesters, including 18-year-old student leader Joshua Wong, “violent radicals.” Wong, a professed Christian, started a hunger strike Monday in order to force government officials to meet with protester leaders.

China also upset the United Kingdom, which formerly ruled Hong Kong, by banning members of Parliament from visiting the Hong Kong protests, claiming they are interfering with “internal affairs.” Parliament members argued China has reneged on the promise made during the 1997 handover to let Hong Kong govern its affairs for at least 50 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.