New Power Party legislative candidates speak before a crowd during a campaign rally near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on Jan. 9.
A new generation of voters, activists and representatives is changing Taiwan’s political landscape.
The outcome of this year’s presidential election was largely shaped by the votes of young Taiwanese. The supporters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who emerged the victor on Jan. 16 with 56 percent of the vote, were much younger on average than those who sided with her Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party rivals. Several pre-election polls showed around 60 percent of people under 40 years old favoring Tsai, with even greater support coming from those under 30.
The growing political participation of the younger generation has also given rise to what has been dubbed the third force—political parties not directly affiliated with the traditional pan-blue and pan-green camps led by the KMT and DPP, respectively. The most notable of these groups is the New Power Party (NPP), which was formed in early 2015 and is now the third-largest party in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan.
In the race for the Legislature, which took place alongside the presidential election, the nascent party won three district seats, including one in central Taiwan’s Taichung City, and two at-large seats. For at-large positions, voters cast their ballots for political parties, which determine who will fill the seats. The results in Taichung were of particular significance, as NPP candidate Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), born in 1982, defeated the KMT’s Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), who was seeking her sixth consecutive term in the Legislature.
A legislative candidate from the Green Party Taiwan-Social Democratic Party alliance waves to passers-by on a street in New Taipei City.
Tragedy to Transformation
The journey of the NPP’s Hung from ordinary office worker to high-profile politician came about as the result of a tragic event and the outrage that followed. In early July 2013, Hung Tzu-yung’s younger brother Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘, 1989-2013) died in military custody just two days before he was due to complete his compulsory national service. Hung passed away while serving a detention sentence and suspicions were raised about the circumstances of his death and whether the military was hiding evidence of wrongdoing. As a result, thousands of protesters gathered at Ministry of National Defense headquarters in Taipei on July 20 to call for a thorough investigation and punishment for any military personnel who contributed to his death.
Two weeks later, in what would become known as the White Shirt Movement, so named for the clothing worn by activists, more than 100,000 people marched on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on the eve of the young soldier’s funeral. The protests led to petitions and then investigations, which ended with several military personnel receiving prison sentences and an amendment to the Code of Court Martial Procedure dictating that civilian courts prosecute members of the military during peacetime.
Throughout the protests and investigations, Hung Tzu-yung’s calm, steadfast attitude while confronting military authorities captured the hearts of the public and she became a driving force behind the White Shirt Movement. The demonstrations changed how young people perceived their ability to enact change. Now, “taking part in public affairs has become commonplace for the nation’s youth,” said Huang Hou-ming (黃厚銘), an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at National Chengchi University in Taipei. With their concerns about economic, environmental and social issues, he noted, young people are developing views and perspectives different from those of older generations.
More than 100,000 people marched on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Aug. 3, 2013 on the eve of soldier Hung Chung-chiu’s funeral.
Moved to Action
The high-level support among younger voters for the DPP had already helped the party achieve a resounding victory in the 2014 nationwide local government elections. In the wake of the polls, the DPP held the top offices in 13 out of the nation’s 22 special municipalities, counties and county-level cities.
Smaller parties were also given a boost by an infusion of young blood into local politics. Twenty-seven-year-old Xavier Wang (王浩宇), for example, is now a councilman in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City. He represents the Green Party Taiwan, which was established in 1996 and cemented an alliance for this year’s legislative election with the newly formed Social Democratic Party. Also in 2014, Councilwoman Hsueh Cheng-yi (薛呈懿), 26, formerly of the Trees Party but most recently running as an independent, earned a seat in the northeastern county of Yilan.
Notably, neither of the councilors belongs to a political family. Hsueh said that when she was a university student, she joined nongovernmental groups concerned with environmental or educational issues. She went on to participate in various social movements. “When taking part in rallies, I witnessed this amazing energy. I want to take what I saw and felt then and make it part of the institution of government,” Hsueh said. Wang echoed her attitude, saying he believes that “some problems can only be solved from within the government.”
University students occupy the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014 to protest a controversial attempt to pass a services trade pact with mainland China.
Huang pointed out that young people are helping extensively change Taiwan’s political landscape. “This trend [of youth participation] may perhaps slow down a bit but it won’t vanish,” he said.
Before the NPP was set up, many of its current supporters participated in various social movements that were blossoming around the nation. The activists gathered to protest government policies in areas ranging from labor rights and nuclear power to agricultural land acquisition and regulations on public assembly. These protests were the first step in the formation of the NPP, noted Chen Ting-hao (陳廷豪) of the party’s policy and news department. The NPP established a partnership with the DPP during the elections, Chen said, “but a ruling party always adopts a more moderate stance. … We’ll be more outspoken and insistent, especially on policies concerning our national identity and social justice.”
‘The China Factor’
Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China was an issue at the heart of the social movements that would lead to the formation of new parties and the reshaping of the nation’s political environment. “The China factor,” Huang noted, was the catalyst for the student-led protests that took place from March 18 to April 10, 2014.
Over the course of 24 days, thousands of people, many of them university students, gathered around and occupied the Legislative Yuan to protest against a proposed cross-strait services trade pact. Activists expressed concern that the agreement could lead to economic and political interference from mainland China. Among those protesting was Lim Tshiong-tso (林昶佐), better known as Freddy Lim, the lead singer of heavy metal band Chthonic. The 40-year-old rock singer went on to help found the NPP and now represents the party in the Legislative Yuan.
Green Party Taiwan cyclists gather for a rally in Taipei to call for action on global warming.
The protest campaign that began on March 18, named the Sunflower Movement after the flowers carried by demonstrators, resulted in a postponement of the review of the services trade pact until a supervisory law for cross-strait negotiations can be passed. The supervisory legislation is now one of the top-priority items of the new Legislature, which began its first session in February.
Chen said the leadership of the NPP continues to stand for the ideals of the Sunflower Movement, as demonstrated by the choice of party chairman, newly elected Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a legal scholar and leading figure in the 2014 demonstrations. The NPP chairman, along with Councilors Wang and Hsueh, has stated that it is crucial to continue to boost the political participation of young Taiwanese people. “Young people may be too idealistic, too unrealistic,” Huang Hou-ming said, “but they are the engines of progress.”
Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw
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ILLUSTRATIONS AND INFOGRAPHICS: Cho Yi-ju, Yui Han, Kao Shun-hui