Politics

On Saturday, Taiwan voted in its presidential election, with incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party returned to office with a resounding 57% of votes, defeating the Kuomintang’s Han Kuo-yu. Ng Soon Kiat analyses the results and what it means for Taiwan politics.

With Luo Huining taking over as the director of mainland China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, will there be a change in Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong? Freelance writer and China think tank analyst Zheng Weibin is cautiously optimistic. He says the Sham Chun River, after all, is not as wide as the Taiwan Strait.

Putting a political veteran in charge of the central government’s representative office in Hong Kong heralds a new approach in China’s dealings with Hong Kong.

Lance Gore, senior research fellow of the East Asian Institute, warns that a new cold war awaits China and the US if they continue to talk over each other. How can the two giants see each other in a better light? How can China improve its rule of law and governance practices?

​​The 2020 Taiwan presidential elections can be said to be one of the most elusive ones yet. Incumbent Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen’s opinion poll ratings may be miles ahead of the Kuomintang’s presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, but the latter’s overwhelming support at rallies suggest that he is still very much in the game. Only the ballots cast on 11 January 2020 will determine if Tsai or Han will emerge victorious.

The New Year speeches given by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen and Chinese president Xi Jinping betrayed an atmosphere of cold hostility. Taiwan has made certain moves that have not gone down well with mainland China, seemingly with the support of the US, while the image of the CCP in Taiwan is not at its best. Han Yong Hong asks: “How will China respond?”

Political scientist Zhu Zhiqun assesses that the East Asian security outlook for 2020 is not very promising, given that overall security in the region has deteriorated on several fronts over the past year. He gives his take on key hotspots in the region — the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, and the Taiwan Strait — and sums up major powers’ priorities in the region.

Alex Capri, visiting senior fellow at the NUS Business school, opines that an increasingly hostile rivalry between the US and China spells a tech war that involves greater decoupling of global value chains and entry into a new era of “techno-nationalism”.

With various traps waiting to ensnare bilateral relations and an increasing anxiety in the US about China’s rise, China-US relations are set on a rocky path, with some fearing an inevitable Cold War. Bleak outlook notwithstanding, Zheng Yongnian rationalises that in a globalised interdependent world, China has resources at its disposal to fend off attempts by US hardliners to goad it into a Cold War or worse.