Actually, only 40% voted for the DPP. I don't know if Petrolicious88 is Taiwanese, but I am and I'm not surprised by the result of the election. As China becomes more prosperous relative to Taiwan, more and more people will become pro-China. I have family members and friends in Taiwan and the United States who used to be ardently pro-independence but now many of them are open to the possibility of closer ties with China. Why? Most of them say that they are impressed by the PRC's technological achievements and ironically, the younger ones say that they are increasingly interested in Chinese popular culture (Douyin, dramas, music, etc.) Basically, what I've seen with my own eyes is largely consistent with the results of yesterday's election (declining support for the DPP, especially among young people).
That said, this is a victory for the pro-US camp but statements like "Taiwan is already gone. There’s zero soft power to win back Taiwan" are inconsistent with reality, in my opinion.
I am not Taiwanese, but what I see from HK, a lot of pro-China people simply just move to mainland China. Logically, if the people believe the mainland is full of opportunities and you are in a position to take advantage, you’d go. Liang Ming Soong went and recruited many of his TSMC colleagues. SZ
There are tens of thousands of Taiwanese in SZ alone. I believe the formally known number in all of mainland China is something like at least 300,000, and I think a significant number in HK as well.
In any case, it is a number that the DPP believes is unfavourable.
See my previous post, that it's normal for any leading party in the so-called democracies to always perform worse on the following elections.
People simply get bored and vote someone else because they can. That system is made to be very cyclical in nature.
I live beside the EU, and I understand this system very well. What occurred in these Taiwanese elections is very rare. They should've already been out if we follow the norms.
It's incredibly successful for a leading party to repeat 3 election cycles, and still hold 7% lead (as of my knowledge, even impossible).
In reality, DPP should've made a much worse result than this.
It shows that either people are very in line with their policies, or the US has a very strong grip on this country's political system, to be this firm.
Actually DPP lost the majority in the legislature so essentially you have a lame duck president.