Taiwan To Elect Its President
Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ing-wen
Taiwanese people are expected on Saturday to elect their president at the end of a campaign dominated by domestic issues, the most prominent of which was the care for the welfare of the middle class. The iconic Kuomintang of China, the Nationalist party which created the first Republic of China in the 1910s, is proposing as candidate incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou, who is seen as a careful economic planner and friendly to People’s Republic of China, but out of touch with the voters, while the Democratic Progressive Party is proposing Tsai Ing-wen, who is campaigning on the idea that the gap between rich and poor has widened during Ma’s term.
For the first time in 25 years of democratic life in Taiwan, relations with China have not been the theme of the campaign, but rather the social equity in the emerging country, which has known a spectacular growth over the last decades, becoming one of the Asian “economic tigers.”
The relations between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China have improved since 2008, and the perspective of was has become less pressing, which allows the Taiwanese voter to focus on his day to day life, like all the voters in the civilized countries.
The only connection with China is the fact that the jobs are going to China, while the people in Taiwan are facing fewer jobs and no raise of wages.
Even so, unemployment in Taiwan is below 5 percent, while economy growth is of 4.5 percent last year, making the economy in this country the 19th economy in the world. the salary rise is of no more than 5.8 percent from 2000 to 2010.
The wealthiest 20 percent make six times the revenue of the 20 percent of the poorest in the country. A political scientist in Taipei said that the problem in Taiwan was not related to economic growth but to distribution of wealth.
There is no telling who will win the elections since the polls show a very close score, but it is believed that the candidate who brings young people to vote will win.
Taiwan is officially named The Republic of China and was founded in 1912 after the fall of the Chinese Empire. The republic went into exile in 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was established at the end of a civil war.
Until 1971, the Republic of China was the legal representative of the Chinese people at the United Nations. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted the Resolution 2758, by which the Republic of China was considered part of the People’s Republic of China.
The vote was influenced by the political situation in the world at that time, with the world divided between the Communist bloc and the democratic one. Most of the countries in Africa that now conduct business with China voted in favor of the Communist China in 1971.
Since 1971, the Republic of China was reduced to the status of country without membership of the United Nations. The Republic of China has applied on various occasions to UN membership, but its application was turned down because of the opposition made by People’s Republic of China.
At the present time, 23 nations have diplomatic relations with The Republic of China. Due to the situation, the regime in the Republic of China was one of martial law, and the situation changed in late 1980s, when Taiwan prospered and became one of the most important countries in the region.
Its growth however was partly due to the cheap cost of the labor force, an advantage that is about to be taken away by the other China, which has even a cheaper labor force.
In 1992, the two Chinese leaderships convened that there was only one China and two interpretations of it: both countries consider themselves representatives of all the Chinese.
In the 1990s, the Republic of China renounced its claims over the China mainland and Mongolia, and changed the name of the country to The Republic of China on Taiwan or even Taiwan.
Kuomintang came to power in Taiwan in 2008, and the idea of the Republic of China gained momentum again. The Nationalist party is not seeking the independence of Taiwan, because in their opinion independence would mean giving up the claim over China and Mongolia. For this reason, under Kuomintang, Taiwan stopped applying to the UN Security Council for membership.
