Dozens of elections will be held around the world this year, bookended in November by hotly contested presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races in the United States. Across the Pacific, Taiwan will this weekend hold one of the most closely watched polls globally and its outcome could impact rocky U.S.-China ties and dictate geopolitical trends in 2024. China has called it a choice between war and peace.
On January 13, 19.54 million people—83 percent of Taiwan’s population—will be eligible to vote, including 1.03 million possible first-timers, according to the Central Election Commission in Taipei. At stake are the promise of myriad social reforms, the future of Taiwan’s economic and energy policies, and, as always, its relationship with neighboring China, balanced against its decades-long closeness with America.
The People’s Republic of China claims the former Japanese colony as part of Chinese territory. Taiwan’s Republic of China government, which retreated to Taipei in 1949 after a civil war defeat to the Communist Party now ruling from Beijing, says it rightfully reclaimed the island from Imperial Japan after World War II.