Taiwan votes to keep all 24 KMT lawmakers facing mass recall in ‘failure for Lai’

Voters in Taiwan on Saturday resoundingly rejected a mass recall campaign targeting opposition lawmakers, dealing a major setback to Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) while handing the Kuomintang (KMT) a surprise reprieve.

All 24 lawmakers from the Beijing-friendly KMT who faced recall votes survived, in what analysts described as a serious political miscalculation by the DPP and its affiliated civil society groups.

The backfiring of the DPP’s high octane campaign, which was championed as a way to root out “pro-China forces” and safeguard Taiwan’s democracy, exposes growing public fatigue with “anti-China” rhetoric as a blanket strategy.

Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a part of China to be reunited by force if necessary, has intensified military pressure on the island since Lai took office in May last year and provoked Beijing with what it calls “separatist” and pro-independence remarks.

The United States, like most countries, does not recognise self-governed Taiwan as independent. However, it is opposed to any unilateral change to the status quo and is committed to supplying Taiwan with weapons for defence.

  

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