Taiwan held its quadrennial presidential and legislative elections in January 2020. Barely a year ago, the incumbent President Tsai Ing-Wen’s Democratic Progressive Party suffered a crushing defeat at the mid-term local elections. The defeat, coupled with the threat posed by the immensely popular insurgent populist challenger in the KMT’s candidate, Han Kuo-Yu, once made the DPP’s 2020 prospects looked dire. And yet eventually the DPP defied expectations, not only retaining a majority in the legislature, but walked away with the highest number of popular votes in presidential electoral history.

What happened? What does it mean for the future of Taiwan’s political alignment, cross-strait relations, and regional dynamics more broadly?

In his seminar, Wen-Ti Sung will address the above questions and share his insights on the politics in Taiwan.

Please RSVP to A/Prof David Hundt at david.hundt@deakin.edu.au

Wen-Ti Sung is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University (ANU). He is a recent MOFA Taiwan Fellowship visiting fellow and an Asian Studies visiting fellow at the East-West Center. His research focuses on cross-strait relations, Chinese elite politics, and US-China policy epistemic community. Wen-Ti is also a political columnist for leading Taiwanese media outlets such as Liberty Times, Yahoo News Taiwan, Up Media, and Apple Daily.