Tim Webster, an associate professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law, spoke at Smith College on Friday to discuss the Jan., 2020 election in Taiwan.
According to the event’s page on the Smith Campus Pulse website, “In the space of one generation, Taiwan has gone from being an authoritarian one-party state, to one of Asia’s most vibrant, multi-party democracies.”
Taiwan’s Jan., 2020 election made history when Tsai Ing-wen, a female politician, was re-elected as president. According to Webster, a fair share of fake news about the election circulated during the campaign process, making Ing-wen uncertain if she would be re-elected.
But when it came time for the election, there was a 75 percent voter turnout at the polls and Ing-wen won by a landslide, Webster said. She won 57 percent of the vote, beating opponent Han Kuo-yuwho had 38 percent of the vote. Webster also claimed that compared to the U.S., the voting turnout rate for the Taiwan 2020 election was over 20 percent higher.
“I think [her victory] speaks to [Ing-wen’s] cleverness or skill,” Webster said about the election. “She actually took it on, and a guy who challenged her during the primary, a respected guy in politics, she defeated him. And I can’t imagine, for example, our own president doing the same.”
This speaks measures on the motives of Taiwan’s voters, Webster said. He argued voters choose candidates who are highly qualified and experienced as politicians, but the U.S., who’s democracy is currently on a decline, cannot say the same. The U.S. saw an example of voters choosing an inexperienced candidate at Iowa’s caucus, where 26 percent of people chose Pete Buttigieg.
According to reporting from the BBC, after the Jan., 2020 elections, Taiwan’s Parliament has 38 percent female legislators, which has surpassed the international average of 22 percent. In comparison, Pew Research Center, found that the U.S. House of Representatives of the 116th Congress, which was elected in 2018 and is still serving, consisted of 23.4 percent female legislators.
Webster acknowledged the importance of electing a female president of Taiwan.
“Women who get elected president are almost always way better qualified than their male competitors, Webster said. “That was certainly the case in Taiwan’s election of 2016 and as well as the election last month.”
Webster claimed that re-electing a woman president was even rarer that electing one, but that voters in Taiwan choose their candidates based off of what will benefit their country.
“In terms of her being a woman, I do not think that is quite a big issue because she was already elected once,” said Ruoyi Yan, a sophomore psychology and East Asian studies double major at Smith. “She may face some discrimination from people in Taiwan, but I think the people in Taiwan are mainly concerned with her policies.”
Aysia Reed can be reached at [email protected].
