Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, which will be watched closely by neighbour China as it views the island as a Chinese province. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
The candidates
There are three candidates standing for the position of president. The current president, Tsai Ing-wen, is constitutionally barred from standing again after two terms in office.
Lai Ching-Te
Lai, also widely known by his English name William, is running for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Currently Taiwan's vice president, he is also the DPP's chairman.
Lai, whose father was a coal miner, has riled China for comments he made before standing for the presidency about being a "worker for Taiwan independence".
He says he wants to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, not change Taiwan's formal name of the Republic of China, and will, like Tsai, not provoke or take risks. Lai and Tsai both reject China's sovereignty claims.
Lai, along with Tsai, has repeatedly offered talks with China but has also been rebuffed, as Beijing views them both as separatists. Lai, 64, and Tsai say only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
Lai has deep experience in government, having previously served as a lawmaker, mayor of the southern city of Tainan and premier. His running mate is Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's high-profile former de facto ambassador to the United States.
Hou Yu-Ih
Hou, 66, is the candidate for Taiwan's main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT), whose government fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists.
Hou is the mayor of Taipei's neighbouring city New Taipei, though he has taken a leave of absence to run for president. He was re-elected as the mayor in a landslide in 2022.
The KMT traditionally favours closer ties with China but strongly denies being pro-Beijing.
Hou has said he will restart talks with Beijing, starting with lower level events like cultural exchanges, but rejects China's "one country, two systems" model of autonomy which Beijing hopes one day to get Taiwan to accept.
Hou, formerly Taiwan's top policeman, also says only the island's people can decide their future, and has pledged to keep boosting the island's defences and maintain good relations with the United States.
He has lambasted Lai as a dangerous separatist and denounced what he says are smears from the DPP portraying him as a patsy of China's communist party.
Hou also supports the KMT's position that both Taiwan and China belong to one single China but each side can interpret what that means. He strongly opposes Taiwan independence.
Hou's running mate is the fiery media personality Jaw Shaw-kong.
Ko Wen-Je
Ko, a former Taipei mayor, is the candidate for the small Taiwan People's Party, which he founded in 2019.
Ko, a surgeon by training, has focused on bread and butter issues like the high cost of housing, which has won him a loyal base of young supporters, and has described himself as the only true change candidate.
Ko says his bottom line for dealing with China is that Taiwan's democracy and way of life has to be respected.
He had been talking to the KMT about a joint ticket to take on the DPP, but those talks collapsed in November in bitter disagreement.
Ko, 64, has chosen as his vice presidential candidate one of the party's lawmakers, Cynthia Wu, whose family is a major shareholder of conglomerate Shin Kong Group.
Taiwan's relations with China
China, which considers Taiwan merely a Chinese province and part of its territory despite the objections of the island's government, will be watching the outcome closely.
Here are key facts on ties between Taiwan and China:
Politics
- China has claimed Taiwan through its "one China" policy since the Chinese civil war forced the defeated Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalists, to flee to the island in 1949 and has vowed to bring it under Beijing's rule, by force if necessary.
- Taiwan's government says it is already a sovereign country, officially called the Republic of China, a position supported by the island's main opposition parties.
- Ties were badly strained when Chen Shui-bian from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was Taiwan president from 2000-2008 because of his independence rhetoric, even as he tried to maintain positive relations with Beijing.
- Relations warmed considerably after Ma Ying-jeou, from the KMT which favours close ties to China, took office as president in 2008 and then won re-election in 2012. Ma held a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015.
- In 2014, hundreds of students occupied Taiwan's parliament for weeks in protests nicknamed the Sunflower Movement. They demanded more transparency in trade pacts negotiated with China in the largest display of anti-China sentiment the island had seen in years.
- Since the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen became president in 2016, and won re-election in 2020 Taiwan-China ties have soured again, with China cutting off a formal dialogue mechanism, flying fighter jets around Taiwan, forcing foreign firms to refer to Taiwan as part of China on their websites, and whittling away at Taiwan's diplomatic allies.
- Beijing believes Tsai wants to push Taiwan's independence, a red line for China. She says she wants to maintain the status quo, declaring neither Taiwan's formal independence nor seeking to join with China.
- Vice President Lai Ching-te is the DPP's presidential candidate. China also detests him as a separatist and has rebuffed multiple offers of talks.
- The KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih, mayor of Taipei's neighbouring city New Taipei, wants better ties with China to help boost Taiwan's economy, including pushing a trade services pact shelved in 2014 and restarting talks with Beijing.
- Former Taipei major Ko Wen-je of the small Taiwan People's Party is also running for the presidency.
Trade
- China is Taiwan's top trading partner, with trade totalling $224 billion (€204 billion) in 2023. Taiwan runs a large trade surplus with China.
- China, with its 1.3 billion people and much cheaper costs, is also Taiwan's favourite investment destination with Taiwan companies investing over $100 billion there, private estimates show.
- Taiwan has been encouraging Taiwanese businesses back home and to shift investment to other countries like Vietnam and India to reduce the reliance on China.
Military
- China and Taiwan have nearly gone to war several times since 1949, and in August of 2022 and April of 2023 China staged large scale war games around the island in protest at stepped up US engagement with Taiwan.
- Taiwan says China runs a sophisticated online disinformation campaign to support China-friendly candidates.
- China has framed the elections as a choice between "peace and war", calling the ruling party dangerous separatists and urging Taiwanese to make the "right choice". It says allegations of election interference are DPP "dirty tricks".
- The United States, which has called for the vote to be free from "outside interference", is obliged to help Taiwan with the means to defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. China always reacts angrily to US arms sales to Taiwan and has repeatedly demanded they stop.
