Taiwan elections, polls open for the decisive vote on the future of relations with China
Polls have opened in Taiwan where the island's voters are asked to choose a new president in an election key to the trajectory of relations with China over the next four years. At stake are the peace and stability of the island that China claims as its own. Beijing's military threats may sway some voters against pro-independence candidates, but the United States has pledged to support whatever government emerges from the vote. Aside from tensions with China, the election is largely based on domestic issues, such as the slowing economy, housing affordability, the gap between rich and poor, and unemployment.
The vice president Lai Ching-te, representative of the Democratic Progressive Party, is trying to succeed the outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen and to obtain a third presidential mandate for the independence party, as never before. Lai will vote in her hometown of Tainan. Hou Yu-hee, the candidate of the Kuomintang, the party favored by Beijing, also known as the Nationalist Party, will vote in New Taipei City. The alternative candidate to the two main camps, Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People's Party, which gathers consensus especially among young voters looking for an alternative to the two 'historic' parties, will vote in Taipei.
Taiwan, Blinken: “China must maintain peace and stability during the vote”
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, called on China to “maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” during the presidential elections on the island. “The Secretary of State reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement released after Blinken's meeting with Liu Jianchao, head of the international division of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
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