In an important way, Taiwan’s political system is different than the democratic systems in other countries, where fault lines may exist over differences of ideology, religion or political party affiliation.
“Taiwan is very special. It is an outlier in global comparative politics because the main fault line is in voters’ outlook on the future of Taiwan’s relationship with China,” said Marcin Jerzewski, who leads the Taiwan Office of the European Values Center, a pro-liberal democracy nongovernmental organization founded in the Czech Republic.
In this way, because the vast majority of Taiwanese voters appear to have irrevocably turned against unification with China — due to a combination of aversion to China’s increasing authoritarian turn under President Xi Jinping as well as their own pride in their hard-fought democratic freedoms — KMT is at an inflection point if it wants to be able to compete in national elections, according to experts.
Jerzewski said KMT, which last won the presidency in 2012, is going through an identity crisis. Its party leaders understand that it must adopt policies that are less accommodating of Beijing if it wishes to take back power from the DPP. But a strong and politically engaged rump of the party consistently pulls the leadership back every time they try to toughen their stance toward China, including through supporting closer alignment with the United States.
“Those traditional fault lines are changing, and the KMT doesn’t really have a good idea for how to craft their own China policy because, yes, there are some deep blue people who want the KMT to be the party that pushes for unification, but at the end of day they are fringe elements within the party,” Jerzewski said, referring to the hardcore supporters of KMT, whose official party color is blue.
