Taiwanese voters will head to the polls on Jan. 14 to cast their ballots in a close presidential race that has focused largely on how to address relations with China, which claims Taiwan as a province.
Ma Ying-jeou, the incumbent and chairman of the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party, has worked to strengthen ties across the Taiwan Strait. With James Soong, a candidate who trails a distant third, expected to bleed off some potential Kuomintang support, Ma is neck-and-neck with Tsai Ing-wen, the opposition candidate whose Democratic Progressive Party favors independence from the mainland.
Expanding beyond the media focus on how a DPP victory could have a domino effect leading to a standoff between China and the United States, Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, spoke with Trend Lines about what is driving voter opinion on the ground, and what implications the election might have for other powers in the region.