Taiwan Election Moves Island Closer to China

The Taiwanese people went to the polls Saturday to cast their ballots in the island's first parliamentary election under a new system which cut the number of seats in the legislative body in half. The election, which filled seats in the Legislative Yuan, or LY, required voters to fill out two ballots, one for candidates from the voter's district and one that expressed a preference for a particular party. The LY is a unicameral body with 113 seats, according to the IFES Election Guide.

The opposition Kuomintang Nationalist Party secured a significant victory and is likely to win the upcoming presidential contest as well. That race is set to be decided on March 22 between Frank Hsieh and Ma Ying-jeou. After his Democratic Progressive Party was defeated in the legislative poll, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian resigned as party chairman. He still retains the presidential post. President Chen has long been an advocate of Taiwanese independence and has drawn the ire of both China and the United States for his continued provocations. The opposition Kuomintang favors closer ties with China and actively seeks to improve economic and political exchanges with the mainland. The parliamentary victory will go a long way toward helping the party better relations with the Chinese mainland.

The United States maintains a "One China" policy which recognizes Taiwan as part of the mainland while seeking to continue the island's de facto independence. Under the Taiwan Relations Act the United States is obligated by law to come to the defense of Taiwan if mainland China seeks to take the island back by force. As part of this policy, the United States has provided Taiwan with multiple arms packages over the years designed to boost Taiwan's defensive capabilities. Esther Pan and Youkyung Lee, writing in a backgrounder for the Council on Foreign Relations late last week, said, "...the One China principle has provided the template for foreign relations between Taiwan and other nations, including the United States, which signed a joint communiqué reaffirming the principle when it reestablished relations with Beijing in 1979." China and the United States have consistently gone back and forth over Taiwan, with neither side willing to push the issue to the point of conflict.

The IFES Election Guide says members of the Legislative Yuan are elected through a mixed member proportional system that allocates 73 seats to constituencies, 34 seats to at-large candidates, and 6 seats to indigenous peoples. In addition to the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang opposition, other parties participating in the contest included the People First Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, the New Party, and Non-Partisan Solidarity Union.

Sources: IFES Election Guide, Council on Foreign Relations