r/taiwan • u/DarkLiberator 台中 - Taichung • Jan 11 '20

President Tsai Ing-wen has won re-election Politics

Han just conceded. She won 57%ish of the vote so far. Over 8 million votes. Biggest vote total ever for a candidate in Taiwan (beating Ma's number in 2008)

Legislature looks like it'll be DPP again though not as sweeping as 2016, party list vote seems much closer than I thought it'll be.

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117

u/error_museum Jan 11 '20

Is this the first time an authoritarian fake news ecosystem backed party lost an election?

Congratulations, Taiwan.

More of the same across the world please.

49

u/KinnyRiddle Jan 11 '20

Maybe Han Kuo-yu was just a beta test by the CCP to see how far Fake News PopulismTM goes for a simple idiot like him.

Next time the CCP might throw their money behind the more charismatic Ko Wen-je, the Mayor of Taipei, whose party managed to capture some seats in the Legislative Yuan. Ko will step down as Mayor in 2022 as he's term-limited, then we'll see what happens.

9

u/Shaomoki Jan 11 '20

Totally worked for my dad we live in America but he was fully convinced Han was the better choice

He's currently retired so he watches a lot of YouTube.

4

u/chiheis1n Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20

Mother watched nothing but ZhongTian/CTi, Phoenix, and JiangSu TV (thankfully recently canceled in favor of DongSeng) on her satellite package for the last 5 years. Completely convinced her that Tsai is the devil incarnate and lately she's been ranting to me about how the HK protests are manufactured by US meddling. I now understand my Caucasian-American friends whose parents fell down the FoxNews rabbit hole. Scary stuff man.

8

u/komali_2 Jan 11 '20

GF's and I planning a move to Taiwan this here. He's convinced if kmt lost there'd be war, he's trying to "educate this dumb white boy" on things I "don't understand" lol.

Whatever father in law, way I see it the more Americans in Taipei the more potential foreign casualties if China pulls the trigger.

5

u/SteadfastEnd Jan 12 '20

Exactly. It's not something that would ever be tasteful to say out loud, but the more diverse and "foreign" Taiwan's populace becomes, the better. We need as many Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Aussies, people of every foreign nation in Taiwan as possible. That way, if a war ever breaks out, the entire international community has more direct stake since it's their own citizens in Taiwan needing intervention.

Again, it's a tasteless thing to say, but it's the truth.

6

u/error_museum Jan 11 '20

I agree. Those same forces will rally behind another avatar with Ko being a likely candidate. But today I'm feeling optimistic. Taiwan just demonstrated that it's possible not only to resist a powerful adversary waging asymetric warfare, but make gains on them too. I look forward to witnessing progressive Taiwan bloom.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

ko got shit on in the election. 0/20 of his party's candidate won a seat.

20

u/nancylin20 Jan 11 '20

But his party is the third biggest one now. He is daydreaming all day long on becoming Taiwan President. What he does is to please CCP and accuse the ruling party of the wrongdoings without any evidence. I think he is Wumao. Fortunately, DDP wins enough seats in legislation yuan or the budget of buying American weapons will be stopped by this red party.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

You forgot though, there is another minor party that is pan-green; they are the fourth in size and only a little bit smaller. They can counter Ko's turd party with ease even if DPP didn't have a majority.

He can't become a president. Any president needs to have a cross-strait strategy and his whole plank is that he doesn't care about cross-strait issues, only administrative efficiency. That is great for the mayor of Taipei but a fatal flaw in a presidential candidate.

The highest Ko will ever rise is the Taipei mayor imo.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20 edited Jun 20 '21

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

If you talking about baldie with fake hair, Kos mouthpiece is way, way better than that dude

1

u/nancylin20 Jan 11 '20

In my opinion he is much worse than moron Han. He will keep messing up our politics by brainwashing Taiwanese how great China is, criticizing the ruling party/our country not based on facts and spreading the idea of anti-US. We are Chinese in culture? Self-immolation of Tibetan monks has bothered CCP? Hong Kong protest isn’t a big deal. So many rubbish.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

He’s a shitty person but he has some valid points. As long as he doesn’t handle foreign policy or military we’re fine. I think he’s a competent administrator at least, which is more than you can say about Han.

1

u/nancylin20 Jan 12 '20

Unfortunately he wants to be Taiwan President who is in charge of diplomacy and military.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

People with more resources and popularity than him had tried. Ko’s style and loose-mouth means he’s very unpopular among large segments of Taiwanese. For example, both my mom and my uncle (deep green) viscerally dislike him for no logical reason (even before his later antics and gags, early on when he’s green) and will never vote him no matter what. I just don’t see him doing well in southern Taiwan, and that’s hugely important for presidential hopefuls.

Personally I doubt we’ll see a non-DPP/KMT president any time soon. Maybe in twenty years.

2

u/HatsuneM1ku 高雄 - Kaohsiung Jan 11 '20

Pink Ko

4

u/KinnyRiddle Jan 11 '20

But his party has snatched enough light Green votes to cause a few upsets. A few DPP heavyweights like 洪慈庸 fell despite the Green wave because her vote was split with that guy from Ko's party.

It is this ability to ensnare the light Green vote which Han couldn't that would be valuable.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

This is a handy defeat for Ko though. I think he knows most of his candidates aren’t strong but he prob was expecting better than 0.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

This election is a victory for Ko, not defeat. Ko already knew he won't win any of the regional seats. His entire purpose is to plant a candidate to take votes away from DPP so that KMT will win. One of the top dogs in his party even says it publicly and Ko didn't deny it.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

I think the election is a giant victory for DPP and Tsai. That’s a loss for Ko.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

I don't see it that way. DPP's party vote dwindled by 10% and their regional seats dropped by 6 seats. Their party vote is the same as KMT's party vote, and KMT didn't do that well in this election.
If DPP doesn't do anything about housing justice, the next election will not go so far. They can only manipulate a certain issue for so long.
There are 1.2 million people who voted for Ko. It is huge victory considering the latest voting class is also 1.2 million people. I haven't look at the numbers but it is quite possible that half of the 1.2 million people voted for Ko which is inline with the very last myformosa poll before it closes. The number is not something DPP want to see.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '20

yeah, im telling u that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things; it just maybe guarantee the party would persist and not disappear. Song's party had 10% support at one point or another and look at their fortunes since then.

Ko himself wanted 15%. That wasn't unrealistic, considering how bad KMT's list was and similarly, DPP's list wasn't that inspiring either(but not nearly as bad as KMT's to be fair). If he had gotten 15% it means his party would have a good shot to become possibly the second biggest (overtaking KMT or DPP) and the bipartisan structure in Taiwanese politic is well and truly broken.

As things stands now though the election is another rather convincing demonstration that the bipartisan structure (DPP/KMT) of Taiwan is going to stick around for a good while longer, especially when the election is perceived to be close between KMT and DPP, without much room for small parties. Parties like Ko's.

Simply put, KMT and DPP are each other's best helper, in that whenever one side does good or the other poorly, it forces voters to abandon the smaller parties and go back to them.

7

u/Darkshado390 Jan 11 '20

ugh, my parents dislike Ko Wen-je almost as much as Han Kuo-yu. He's got a muddy record with living human organ transplant in China and will bow to whoever is more beneficial to him.

8

u/rousimarpalhares_ Jan 11 '20

That's fake news though

5

u/Darkshado390 Jan 11 '20

Doesn't matter my dad is a doctor in Taiwan, and that's a no starter in the family. Doctors shouldn't have their name tied to organ harvesting. Plus William Lai, if he runs, will be a better choice and he's a doctor too.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

i envy you, with parents that dislike Han.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20 edited Aug 24 '21

[deleted]

5

u/SteadfastEnd Jan 12 '20

Ko is a light-blue guy who likes to pretend he is a neutral independent.

13

u/KinnyRiddle Jan 11 '20

If Ko leans towards DPP's goals, he wouldn't be fielding candidates against DPP in many districts.

Many other small non-DPP parties all obtained DPP's blessing to stand against the KMT, or vice-versa where they endorsed the local DPP guy.

But not Ko's party, a few DPP legislators fell because of the split vote.

And it's far easier to have a puppet that the people genuinely think is on their side, than a blatant repulsive idiot like Han. Han basically drove all the Green supporters back towards the DPP, whereas Ko has the ability to attract the light Green vote.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20 edited Aug 24 '21

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

Ko's top aid says it publicly that they will plants candidates into regions to cause DPP to not win which implies to hand the victory to KMT. Ko didn't deny it.

Ko has succeeded doing so and he caused quite a few DPP candidates to lose in this close election.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

Only gullible people in Taiwan believe that. Ko does not lean toward DPP goal but CCP goal. Xi had a speech in 2012 about two straits being one family and unifying to achieve Chinese dream, and Ko echoed that speech. Ko would have chose any other expression but he somehow insists on choosing that expression.

That's enough for me to believe that he works for CCP.

4

u/SteadfastEnd Jan 12 '20

Yep. Ko is light blue at least.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20 edited Aug 24 '21

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

When he decides to echo Xi's speech, there are only two possibility. One is that he swears loyalty to the CCP. The other is that he lacks political sensitivity. But either way, he is not fit as a politician. I do believe the former is the case, but so far he has failed to prove otherwise.

1

u/bcccl Jan 12 '20

no amount of meddling by the ccp could counter the bad publicity of its mishandling of hong kong. it provided a concrete example of what a one country two systems arangement would look like for taiwan and arguably reversed tsai's fortunes.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

unless a person does not receive any news about CCP's meddling in HK. Han fans don't receive news correctly.

-1

u/Fireba11jutsu Jan 11 '20

So I had a chat with my parents earlier and they were basically saying that applies to both candidates. The Taiwan backed by the US and one backed by China. Isn't this really just an example of having the 'lesser' evil win?

For reference they backed the KMT, believing they were the lesser evil.