How standing up to Xi Jinping could help Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen come back from the political dead
- Tsai’s firm rebuff of call to start unification talks on ‘one country, two systems’ model helps revive her approval ratings
- To win next year’s election she will not only have to fight off the opposition KMT but also internal party critics such as former premier William Lai
To win next year’s election she will have to fight off a challenge both from inside her Democratic Progressive Party, in the form of former premier William Lai Ching-te, before facing off against an opposition heavyweight such as Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu or Foxconn billionaire Terry Gou.
Various opinion polls had put Tsai behind all her prospective challengers since she stepped down as DPP chairwoman after a heavy defeat in November’s local government elections that saw the party lose control of eight cities and counties, including its former stronghold of Kaohsiung.
“No one thought she could make it back in the race after the DPP’s crushing defeat in November, but the proposal by Xi helped her get back on track, as voters admired her courage in safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty,” Fan Shih-ping, professor of political science at Taiwan Normal University, said on Monday.
According to two opinion polls released by the Taipei-based Cross-Strait Policy Association and the United Daily News on Monday to mark the third anniversary of Tsai’s presidency, her approval rating has risen to 41 per cent and 34 per cent respectively, up from lows of 39 per cent and 20 per cent.