The polling has already started in Taiwan for the elections of the next president. In the elections polls 2024 in Taiwan, there are more than 19 million people, out of it, 1 million are first time voters. They registered themselves to cast the ballots across 18,000 polling stations in island country.
The voters will get three ballots: a regional ballot, a presidential ballot, an aboriginal legislator ballot. A ballot for the political party that determines the legislator at large seats. Taiwanese voters chose Tsai Ing-wen successor, who is the first female president of the country. DPP, the Democratic Progressive Party that was led by Tsai, is unfavourably viewed by China, which is considered a sovereign nation like Taiwan.
In a democratic country, citizens decide the country’s future with one vote; Taiwan President Tsai Ing Wen. And urged people to cast three ballots, as they cast her own in new Taipei City on Saturday.
Why Taiwan elections are important for the world
Taiwan has more than 23 million people, but the world is affected by election results. The 36,193 sq km of Taiwan is claimed by China, which is home to 90 % of the world’s supply of semiconductors. It is used in quantum computing applications and AI, artificial intelligence. This fact highlights the economic importance of Taiwan to the global economy. It is estimated that Taiwan accounts for 46 % of the world’s semiconductor foundry capacity. In the modern world, semiconductor chips become vital for the world economy. They are known as the ” new oil” of the technological age since they are required to access power found in every contemporary equipment piece. The capital of the Taiwanese reorganized the structures and put significance on the semiconductor industry of the country, among other things.
The Taiwanese Strait has experienced an increase in military aggression against China as a geoeconomic hotspot for years. By dispatching ships frequently and warplanes to the seas and skies surrounding Taiwain, the top leader of China, Xi Jinping, has consolidated the claim of Beijing over Taiwan’s people
Who are the 3 candidates?
Lai Ching-Te
Lai Ching-te is presently Taiwan’s VP from the Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the island. Years ago, the 64-year-old defined himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence,” drawing complaints from Beijing. If elected president, Lai has pledged to reinforce countrywide defence and the financial system and to retain the policy route set with Tsai.
Hou Yu-Ih
Hou Yu-it is the candidate from Taiwan’s most important competition party, Kuomintang, or KMT, whose authorities retreated to the island in 1949. After it cause a civil war against the Chinese Communist Party. He served as the top of the island’s police pressure before transitioning to politics in 2010. The 66-12-year-old is currently the mayor of New Taipei, a role from which he took away to run for president. He has pledged to bolster countrywide defence and restart talks with Beijing.
Ko Wen-Je
The third candidate for the presidential elections, Ko Wen-je, represents the smaller Taiwan People’s Party, which he founded in 2019. An outspoken surgeon-turned-politician, Ko advocates for Acentrale Street for family members in Beijing. He describes himself as the simplest candidate who might be appropriate to both the US and China. The 64-year-old was mayor of Taipei between 2014 and 2022 and has cooperated in the past with each of the DPP and KMT.
Who can be the Next president?
Vice President Lai Ching-te, representing the governing Democratic Progressive Party, referred to as the DPP, seeks to be successful with the outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen and provide the independence-leaning party with an unprecedented third term. Lai may be balloting in his motherland of Tainan.
What does China say?
China has counselled that Taiwan might be deciding between peace and war this time and has brazenly opposed the DPP for what it sees as its separatist leanings. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and warns it would reclaim it by power if Taiwan officially claimed its independence.
China has dispatched fighter planes and warships close to the island to put the tooth at the back of its warnings. Any armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait would disrupt the global economic system and could draw in the United States. China and Taiwan are related by means of alternative and investment, with a predicted 1 million Taiwanese spending at the least part of the year on the mainland for work, look at or endeavour.
Peace in China and Taiwan- What stakes?
According to Chris Miller’s ‘Chip War, The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology’, the entire international economy brings peace to Taiwan. A disruption to semiconductor production should have dramatic outcomes on the sector’s economic system, perhaps a whole lot more than COVID-19 or the Ukraine conflict, as per Miller.
In recent years, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. or TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chip manufacturer that counts Apple and Nvidia amongst its largest clients. It has ended up being significant to the island state’s semiconductor dominance. Besides, China is a buyer of Taiwan-made chips.
Taiwan exported electronic integrated circuits, or chips, well worth over $47 billion to China in 2023, as per preliminary data. Some analysts argue that China’s reliance on chips manufactured in Taiwan is so first-rate that it makes an assault much less probable, as destruction or inoperability of Taiwan’s foundries might devastate China’s economic system.
Taiwan Election Results 2024: Towards balance or war of words path with China?
The election sees the anti-China Democratic Progressive Party and pro-U.S. candidate Lai Ching-te leading the polls towards the Kuomintang candidate Hou Yu-ih, who’s seen as more accommodating in the direction of Beijing.
At the centre of the election is a stark choice supplied to the Taiwanese people: one between peace or battle that Kuomintang has campaigned on and democracy or dictatorship. A choice propagated with the aid of the Democratic Progressive Party. Lai is seen leading through a large margin, suggesting a possible continuation of the Democratic Progressive Party’s rule.
If the Kuomintang, which adheres to a ‘One China’ principle, secures victory, Taipei-Beijing ties are anticipated to stabilize because of the party’s accommodative stance in the direction of Beijing. The stabilization may additionally take away the imminent chance of military battle in the intervening time. It keeping the world away from a D-day scenario of disrupted semiconductor supply chains.
