A presidential candidate on why Taiwan needs a third way

IN 2014, AFTER a 30-year career as an acute-care surgeon, I was elected the first non-party-affiliated mayor of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, since it became a municipality overseen by the central government. I was re-elected in 2018, amid intense competition between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT). Over the past quarter century, these rivals have alternately held the reins of executive and legislative power, symbolising a lack of confidence among our citizens in the bipartisan system that had long dominated Taiwanese politics.

Advocating sweeping change, I established the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in 2019 and now seek the presidency in the election that is to be held on January 13th. From its inception, the TPP recognised the veiled corruption underlying ideological battles over unification or independence in our bipartisan system—a particularly poignant fact given that around 90% of Taiwanese prefer to maintain the status quo. We also wanted to tackle the political system’s inherent inefficiency when it comes to addressing evolving domestic and international realities.