Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

China might implement pressure campaigns in the run-up to Taiwan’s presidential election next month, including introducing investment incentives and conducting military exercises around the country, to try and sway voters to cast their ballot in a more pro-Beijing direction, an expert said on Thursday.

In contrast to how official communications with Taiwan were severed after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won her first-term victory in 2016, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continued full steam ahead in its efforts to win the hearts of Taiwanese business people, said Kung Shan-son (龔祥生), a researcher at the Taiwan government-funded think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) is a so-called “native blue,” meaning an ethnic Taiwanese member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Ever since the KMT nominated Hou as its presidential candidate in July, public support rating had been in the doldrums. The KMT’s “blue fighters” look down on Hou, as most explicitly expressed by songwriter Liu Chia-chang (劉家昌), who called him “a sack of straw minus the straw.”

With the party’s prospects looking rather shaky, the KMT negotiated with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) about forming a “blue-white” joint presidential ticket with Hou and TPP Chairman and presidential nominee Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).