Can Taiwan’s KMT yield to changing voter attitudes without offending Beijing?
- The party is facing internal pressure, especially from its younger members, for renewal – including a review of its stance on cross-strait relations
- KMT’s defeat in the January election has put the question in the spotlight, with growing internal calls for change
Ho, who won the highest number of votes in the entire 2020 legislative election, comfortably shrugged off Lin’s challenge on January 13 to retain her seat as a representative of Taichung city’s Dali and Taiping district.
It was also a losing night for Lin’s party, which failed to take the legislature and the presidency to give the ruling DPP an unprecedented third term in power under president-elect William Lai Ching-te.
The KMT’s defeat is the first time in Taiwan’s 30 years of democracy that a political party has spent three consecutive terms in opposition, a record that has put the century-old KMT’s future – and even survival – under the spotlight.
New times, old problems
For Lin and a wave of younger KMT members like him, the obvious answer is change. “The results are regrettable, but also reflect that the party has many reforms [that need] to be done,” he said.
