Taiwan’s ‘Victory for the Community of Democracies’

By Jimmy Quinn

Saturday, January 13, 2024

 

Speaking in Taiwan before he was officially declared the country’s president-elect, William Lai addressed the broader stakes at play in today’s election. Per The Guardian, which had correspondents on the ground in Taipei, he called his victory a “victory for the community of democracies . . . Taiwanese people have the right to choose their own president.”

 

That’s uncontestably true. Lai outperformed polling in the weeks and months ahead of today’s contest, but he still only earned a plurality of the vote (a bit over 40 percent). His party, the Democratic Progressive Party, also lost ground in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan legislature, losing control there. It’s hardly a crushing mandate, and there will still be difficulties ahead. But the idea that Taiwan’s DPP has won election for the third time since 2016, and a mere 28 years after its first presidential election, which itself followed the end of Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship, is remarkable. Consider that this contest happened at all, proceeded smoothly, with the graceful concessions of Lai’s opponents from the Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party candidates, and defied the will of the totalitarian giant on Taiwan’s doorstep. There was really no doubt about it before, but the election today is a reminder: Taiwan is a thriving and vibrant democratic society.

 

Many conservatives have grown weary of a rhetorical approach to foreign policy that emphasizes democracy promotion first, and all other considerations, say, like U.S. national security, second. There’s a reasonable debate to be had about that. But it shouldn’t stop anyone from celebrating the fact that this former dictatorship has conducted another successful presidential election. It’s a commendable feat in its own right and a repudiation of Beijing’s many attempts to defy the will of the Taiwanese people. As many others have observed, the very existence of Taiwanese democracy exists as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party’s own legitimacy. It shows that the Party’s claim that modern democracy is only a Western innovation specific only to certain cultures is false.

 

Earlier this month, Lai’s team put out a television ad that instantly became an iconic moment in Taiwanese political history. The video, called “On the Way,” showed the current DPP incumbent, Tsai Ing-wen at the wheel of a car, with Lai, her vice president, in the passenger seat. They drove along the Taiwanese coastline, carrying on a conversation reflecting on their time leading the country. Then, they come to a stop. Lai’s running mate, Bi-khim Hsiao, the former ambassador to the U.S., is waiting. Tsai gets out, Lai moves to the driver’s seat, and Hsiao rides shotgun. “Without peace and democracy, Taiwan will not be the same,” Lai tells her. “This is the result of the past efforts of many people. I cherish everything about Taiwan. I will defend it with my life.”

 

I think that Miles Yu, the historian and former government official, put it best today on Twitter. His post shows what the DPP ad would look like if the Chinese Communist Party were to create its own such commercial: Xi at the wheel, in the passenger seat, and in the backseat.

Like remarking on the existence of Taiwan’s thriving democracy, to point out that Xi has absolute control in China is to make an obvious observation. But it’s an important contrast, and one that needs to be made many times over.