Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan's more than 19 million eligible voters will cast their ballots on Saturday to elect the island's next leaders and lawmakers amid domestic economic challenges and China's continued threats against the self-ruled island.
There are three candidates in the running for the top job: William Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's current vice president representing the ruling Beijing-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP); the mayor of New Taipei, Hou Yu-ih, of the Kuomintang (KMT), a friend of Beijing; and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je of the new Taiwan People's Party (TPP).
Many in Taiwan face skyrocketing housing prices and stagnant wages, but beyond the economic issues that are key to elections everywhere, people on the island must also grapple with a more existential issue: that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ) wants to take control of the island, by force if necessary.
In the run-up to the election, he sent military planes and balloons across the island as his officials urged voters to make the “right decision.”
Brian Hioe, founding editor of the Taiwan-focused New Bloom magazine, notes that while it is not the only factor, “the most important issue in Taiwanese presidential elections is traditionally the decision between independence and unification.”
Beijing insists that Taiwan is part of China, but in recent years Taiwan's people, many of whom have grown up in one of Asia's most vibrant democracies and know nothing else, have become increasingly assertive about their own sense of identity.
According to the Center for Election Studies at National Chengchi University, 62.8 percent of people identified themselves as Taiwanese in June 2023, while 30.5 percent said they were both Taiwanese and Chinese, and only 2 .5 percent identified as Chinese.
'Our identity is being eradicated'
Aurora Chang, now 24, long questioned her identity and sense of belonging because “I knew I was Taiwanese but I also felt like I wasn't just Taiwanese, but I didn't know what the other things were.”
However, at the end of his first year as a student, he made a decision.
“Being Taiwanese was really a conscious choice that I made,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to her epiphany. “I wanted to connect more with my roots and understand what they meant and feel my connection to the land, my family and my history,” she said.
“Our identity is being actively eradicated by a power much larger and with much more international influence than us,” he added.
According to Taiwan's Central Election Commission, more than 30 percent of voters are between 20 and 39 years old.
Hioe, who is also a non-resident fellow at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan studies programme, notes that “identity concerns are certainly part of what differentiates young Taiwanese from other young Asians: in the sense that “Most young people do not face an existential threat to their rights.” their national identity.”
Chen Yi An, a 27-year-old medical worker from Taipei, is also proud to call herself Taiwanese.
“Taiwan is the place where I grew up, the land that raised me. “I am Taiwanese,” she said, adding that the way she defines where she is from “should not be controversial.”
But not all young Taiwanese are so entrenched in their sense of identity, and some do see themselves as Chinese.
Ting-yi Zheng, a 27-year-old student from Tainan, Taiwan's historic city, has lived in China for seven years and is currently studying for a doctorate in Beijing.
He told Al Jazeera he had no plans to return home to vote.
He last backed KMT candidate Han Kuo-yu, but is now concerned about the state of Taipei's ties with Beijing and the effect on the island's economy. China has increased political, economic and military pressure on Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen was first elected president in 2016, despite her initial offer of talks.
Zheng says he doesn't want the island to go to war with Beijing.
“I hope that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can be peacefully unified,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the two peoples needed to get to know each other better.
Liz Li, now 27, says she learned in school that Taiwan was an “independent country,” but says she grew doubtful after reading more on her own.
“The older you get, the more news and history you see, and you'll think: Are we really a country?” Li said, referring to the international community's understanding of the state of Taiwan as “a country but not a country.”
However, whatever your thoughts on identity are, it will not be what will motivate your decision at the polls.
Values to live
Li dreams of buying her own house on the island, but the prices are so high that she is thinking about working abroad (getting a job as a UX designer in Japan or the United States) so she can earn and save enough money to make it a reality. .
She thinks that as Taiwan grapples with economic issues such as affordable housing, it needs new ideas and an alternative to the two parties – the DPP and the KMT – that have dominated politics since democratization.
Li plans to vote for Ko of the TPP for the sake of “who will give us a better and more stable life.”
Ko has attracted the support of many equally disillusioned young people, attracted by his outsider status and for whom economic issues are more worrying than the noises from across the Taiwan Strait.
“The thing about China is that it's an existing problem for us,” he said, explaining that he didn't think it was an issue that ordinary people could have much impact on, unlike the economy.
Chiaoning Su, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, Journalism and Public Relations at Oakland University in the United States, told Al Jazeera that Taiwanese identity was “a process of knowing who we are not,” which was “defining ourselves by our way of life.” life”. , value, democracy [and] freedom of expression” and the contrast with the authoritarian government of Beijing.
For Chang, those values, including “gender equality” and “views on gay rights,” with the island being the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, underpin her identity and make her proud. of being Taiwanese.
They are also the reason he plans to vote for Lai, a man Beijing has called a “separatist.”
Lai said earlier this week that he wanted to maintain Taiwan's status quo as de facto independent.
“As someone who believes in maintaining Taiwan's independence, there is a very clear choice here,” Chang said.
