Lai Ching-te and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have made historical past.
This is the primary time in Taiwan‘s almost 30-year-old democracy that the identical social gathering has received three consecutive phrases.
And it is completely important they’ve achieved so whereas consistently standing on a platform of standing as much as China.
Indeed, Mr Lai has persistently characterised this marketing campaign as a alternative between “democracy and autocracy”.
Even on the polls at this time whereas casting his poll, he made positive to stress that Taiwan’s democratic course of has been “hard-won” and “should be cherished”.
It is a message that has clearly resonated.
Many occasions individuals right here have instructed us that whereas they may not favour the DPP’s home insurance policies or really feel a change can be good, they may vote for them regardless with cross-strait relations in thoughts.
This has held even though tensions have soared in recent times, with Beijing making rising navy threats and poaching Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies.
Mr Lai can also have been helped to victory this time by the truth that for the primary time Taiwan’s election was a correctly three-horse race.
The new rebel TPP social gathering led by the favored Ko Wen-je centered totally on home points and received numerous help from younger individuals.
And that appears to have predominantly been on the expense of the opposition KMT social gathering, a extra conservative group which favours larger dialogue with China.
Of course a Mr Lai victory is probably the most upsetting end result to China. It sees the self-governing island of Taiwan as a breakaway province that needs to be “re-unified” with the mainland.
Contrary to expectations China has been comparatively quiet this week. Only one Chinese warplane crossed into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) the day earlier than polling.
There have been loads of days in current months and years when that quantity has been dozens.
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Many imagine this was intentional in order to not push voters into the arms of the DPP.
It has clearly not labored.
In truth at Mr Lai’s victory social gathering, the elation was self-evident. People gathered for hours beforehand to get a spot, faces etched with emotion, Taiwan’s flag proudly waving.
There is a transparent sense right here that elections are about a lot greater than only a set of insurance policies. They are about identification and who individuals really feel they’re.
This island would possibly nonetheless occupy a precarious place, and it stays to be seen how China will reply within the coming days and weeks.
But it’s completely evident that democracy is cherished right here, and any sense it is likely to be below menace is a transparent and constant motivator.
Source: information.sky.com”