Chinese officials have been ramping up pressure on Taiwanese voters to make the “correct choice” ahead of the self-governing island’s upcoming presidential elections.
“Correct” Electoral Choice
In his New Year’s message, Zhang Zhijun, the head of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, a quasi-official body that overlooks the mainland’s ties with Taiwan, said that the Taiwanese faced an important choice in the election.
“The two elections coming up in the Taiwan region are important choices between the prospects for peace and war, prosperity and decline,” said Zhang, who headed Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office from 2013 to 2018.
“Taiwan compatriots must stand on the right side of history, and make a correct choice to promote cross-strait relations back to the right track of peaceful development,” he added.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly tried to influence the election in its favour.
While the mainland’s top brass have largely avoided publicly commenting on the vote, President Xi Jinping said in his New Year’s address on Sunday that the island’s “reunification” with China is inevitable. However, he did not directly mention the election.
A flurry of Chinese weather balloons crossed Taiwan for the first time since the island began releasing such data, as tensions with Beijing flare ahead of the self-ruled democracy’s presidential election this month https://t.co/aOjRlvQgrC
— Bloomberg (@business) January 3, 2024
Similarly, Song Tao, the current head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Tuesday that the Taiwanese must promote the process of “peaceful reunification,” as it was the common desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
“The motherland will eventually be reunified, and it will inevitably be reunified,” he said in his New Year’s message on his official website. This, Song stressed, was the common desire and mission of people of both sides.
The politician further called on Taiwan to “promote cross-strait relations to return to the right track of peaceful development, and promote the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland.”
In addition, Song reiterated China’s support for the “one country, two systems” policy and expressed opposition to the island’s formal independence or “interference by external forces.”
While Song also refrained from making any mention of the election, the Taiwan Affairs Office has portrayed the election to be Taiwan’s choice between war and peace.
Changing Taiwanese Views on China
A survey by the Washington D.C.-based think tank Wilson Center, whose results were published last May, found that three-quarters of those living in Taiwan consider themselves to be Taiwanese instead of Chinese — marking a sharp increase from a decade ago.
The poll found that 70-80% of people in Taiwan consider themselves Taiwanese.
Along similar lines, a Pew Research survey found that 85% of Taiwanese respondents supported Taipei’s closer economic ties with the US. Moreover, they favoured closer political ties to Washington than with Beijing by a 2-to-1 margin.