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[East Asia This Week] EP27 - Taiwan Presidential Election

• Meara He

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不明白播客 EP-081 大选前夜体验台湾民主的细节https://www.bumingbai.net/2024/01/ep-081-taiwan-election/
BBC News 台灣大選2024：從香港赴台灣 他們專為參加觀選旅遊團 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZapUvqfOcOM
BBC News  閭丘露薇：中國媒體和民眾如何討論台灣大選 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q65TWuDnKg




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Music Credit
Composer / Writer / Author: KROTOV VLADYSLAV, IPI: 378003660, MoodMode.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to a book with bubble tea with your host, mira Hee. Here I share takeaways from East Asian books on parenting, startups and self-growth. Seeking insights beyond the typical English shelf, want to be a better parent and achieve more in life? You are in the right place. Grab your bubble tea and let's dive in.

Speaker 2:

Hi everyone. Welcome to the new episode of a book with bubble tea. This is Mira, and in today's East Asia, this Week, we're going to talk about the presidential election that just took place in Taiwan, on January 13, 2024. To be very honest, I was very hesitant to talk about this, because we're not a political podcast, right? I just wanted to share with you guys something fun and interesting about East Asia that you probably didn't know, but I don't think we can avoid talking about it because this is such a big thing. Well, around 400 journalists flew into Taiwan to just cover this election and, according to them, this is one of the most important thing of 2024, because it will greatly affect the stability of this region, how safe this place is. You know the tension between China and Taiwan, right? And the second reason is to the world economy because, whether you know or not, taiwan supplied more than 60% of the global semiconductor chips and TSMC. This company alone, this Taiwanese company alone, supplied more than 90% for the advanced type of semiconductor chips, and the semiconductor chips are used in everything right in smart cars, smart phones and even your AI. These days all rely on the power of those semiconductor chips. So I don't think anyone can say this election is not important, and well, if we cannot avoid talking about it, we might well give a whole episode to it. Right, and that's what we're doing today. We're going to talk about the election of Taiwan in 2024.

Speaker 2:

To begin with, this is Mira's confession. Again, even though I study politics, even though I'm from Taiwan, I was actually quite indifferent to this election for a very long time, until a few days before the election. I don't know, this is just something about me. I always feel like elections are a bit ugly. You hear people talking bad about each other and trashing each other, and then I just don't like seeing all these tactics like election tactics. They used against each other during the election. But a few days before the election I had a chat with my brother and I was quite surprised to find out A lot of Taiwanese voters are quite sophisticated now, like my brother was telling me how he wished the president and the party that has the majority seats in the legislative Yuan, which is legislative body of Taiwan, would be coming from different parties, and I was like, oh, I never thought about it, because in Taiwan, actually the president during the election runs together with the legislative Yuan elections, so there are two elections in one, and I was like, oh, I never thought that could be one of the agenda for the voters. But what truly made me think and wonder about this election was when I came across the latest episode of a podcast called Bu Ming Bai, where the host, yuan Li, organized a tour group of overseas Chinese to visit Taiwan and experience the election firsthand. And in her podcast she interviewed one of the members who went on this trip and you know, to protect the identity of this member, she was nicknamed Yamei, so we're going to call her Yamei too. Yamei used to be a journalist in China, but she left China last year because she just couldn't stand the zero COVID policy anymore.

Speaker 2:

In the show, yamei shared about her experiences of this trip to Taiwan. This trip was organized in a way around the historical development of Taiwan's democracy, starting with the former residences of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Jiang Jing Guo, so the first two presidents of Taiwan after Guo Ming-dan retreated from England, china, to Taiwan. Then they moved to the current presidential office and then the Jing Mei White Terror Memorial Park, formerly a prison for political detainees during the White Terror period. And finally they also visited the February 28th Memorial Hall and visited some election campaign offices and also participated in two election campaign activities for two presidential candidates. During the trip they spoke with various people, including prostitutes, homeless individuals in Taiwan, participated in election campaigns, spoke to candidates running for the legislative Yuan election, spoke to general public on the street and to Yamei. It was a real surprise to see how open people are about their political opinions and then the parties they support the candidate support. She said that was something she never experienced in China the freedom of just voicing up your political opinion.

Speaker 2:

But what truly moved her to tears was the material on the opposition figure, zheng Nanrong, who self-immolated on April 7, 1989. So Zheng Nanrong, he fought for democracy. He fought for freedom of speech. He believed those things are very important has different opinions to the government, which was not tolerable by the government, and back then the government was Guo Mingdeng. There was basically no freedom of speech, and that's what Zheng Nanrong was fighting for. Yamei said she was overwhelmed by the wealth of information available, including photos and letters. Zheng wrote to his daughter explaining how he wished she could be living in a freer society. Yamei was deeply touched by Zheng's sacrifice. However, I think what truly resonated with her was her reflection of the past of Taiwan with the current situation of China. Yamei said and this is her quote. I can hardly articulate why I was so overwhelmed with tears that day, but watching that documentary about Zheng Nanrong, which chronicles Zheng's journey from the beginning and there was so much narrative that made you relate to your own situation today.

Speaker 2:

Back when Taiwanese society was incredibly oppressive, many chose to vote with their feet and left Taiwan to start a new overseas. But Zhen, seeing his newborn daughter, couldn't bear the thought of her growing up in such an environment. So he established an independent magazine and was a gentle protester, but eventually he chose self-immolation a tragically intense end. And Yang Mei further continued. And while I cried that day I'm not sure, perhaps it was the emotional immersion remembering the fear on the streets during the white paper movement. End quote. The white paper movement took place in China last year, where protesters held a piece of white paper without writing or saying anything and then they were just standing there on the street against the Chinese government. But in no time Chinese government crammed it down and everything went back to normal. End quote.

Speaker 2:

If those overseas Chinese saw Taiwan's past in present-day China, then there is another group that saw their past in present-day Taiwan. According to a BBC report, a group of around 30 Hong Kong people joined an organized tour to experience Taiwan's presidential election. They also visited historical sites related to the development of Taiwan's democracy, toward various campaign headquarters and participated in several campaign rallies pretty similar to what the overseas Chinese group did. But what they witnessed was the lost opportunity they once had in the past of Hong Kong. According to the tour organizer and this is his quote I brought the group here with a feeling of great envy to see this election. We once had this right and we often felt it didn't matter whether we voted or not, as we couldn't change the system anyway. But now, having lost it, we wonder if we ever truly charged it when we had it. End quote. So this election alone in Taiwan makes Chinese people living in different parts of the world to rethink and reflect on their current situation a lot.

Speaker 2:

And there's another great contrast that I observed in this election, which is the intense international focus versus how cold the coverage is about this event in mainland China. So, like said in the beginning, to cover this presidential election, more than 400 journalists flew from overseas to Taiwan, so from over 150 media agencies and 30 countries. They all came to Taiwan to cover this. Again. This is one of the major events of 2024. However, according to another BBC interview with Dr Lu Wei Lvqi, an associate professor in the journalism department of Hong Kong Baptist University, there was almost no discussion of the Taiwan's election on Chinese social media platforms and very limited information available even for journalists in China to access about it. It's really hard to believe that this great contrast of attention is given to the same event and this really makes me think.

Speaker 2:

You know, taiwan's presidential election and its democracy are truly unique. It's the only democracy across all Chinese societies and somehow the most democratic place in the entire Asia, according to democracy index. Many people have sacrificed for the freedom that we can enjoy now and giving us the right to actually take it for granted. You know, take it for granted of today's liberties freedom of speech and the right to vote. Also, I was preparing for this episode. What truly makes me proud of Taiwan is how tolerant we are really to different political opinions, and I'm not talking about just you know which parties that you support.

Speaker 2:

But you know, in Taiwan you can still go to the old residences of Zhang Kai-shek or you can go to the memorial hall basically condemning, you know, the martial law and then white terrorists that Zhang Kai-shek and Zhang Jing-guo imposed. Why is that? Because people living on this island, they still have different perspectives. Some people love them and think he's a ruthless ruler, but there are some people that appreciated what they did to the country right to develop Taiwan, to establish those foundations of building up Taiwan's economy. And both opinions exist in a Taiwanese society and this is a place that both opinions can coexist in harmony here. And that's what I really appreciate and that's what I really yeah think with our society's need this day. Because I think not only in Taiwan, if you look at, even in the US, how divided the society is based on politics, based on certain issues, and is it really worth it to tear off a society based on certain agendas and then you hate each other just because they have different opinions? Then what is the freedom of speech all about? And now I'm moving on to the post script.

Speaker 2:

Two days after the presidential election, shi Mingde, the former chairman of the DPP party, which is the current ruling party, passed away. He died at the age of 83 and his whole life is the history of democratization of Taiwan. He was born in the Japanese colonial period and he have gone through every single major event in Taiwan to help establish and push for democratization. In 2000, he even helped his party, dpp, won their first presidential election. So it's the first time that Taiwan has this change in ruling party ever in Taiwan's democracy history. But when he saw how corrupted the president from DPP has become, he did not hesitate to initiate the largest protest to impeach that president either. Doesn't matter which party you belong, shi Mingde is generally highly regarded and respected as a democracy activist in Taiwan and I think we truly owe him a lot. So thank you and resting peace.

Speaker 2:

Alright, so this is the episode of East Asia this Week from a book with bubble tea. I tried to bring different perspectives into this presidential election of Taiwan, beyond just the political tension or security or economic issue, but trying to see it from the perspectives of different Chinese living in different parts of the world and what this election might mean to them. I will include the podcast link and then BBC's interviews in the show notes. If you can read or understand Chinese, please do check it out. I think they are very, very insightful. Okay, I guess that's it for today's episode and if you like the show, please do follow us, and we really really, really need your help to promote it to your friends. So please do share the episode to your friends. We are really appreciated. Okay, until next week. See you, bye.