TAIPEI — Hong Kong’s widespread protests and authorities’ repressive tactics against demonstrators played a key role in Taiwan’s elections four years ago. Since then, China’s clampdown on civil liberties in the former British colony has only intensified, yet experts say it is barely on voters’ radar as Taiwan prepares to go to the polls again on Saturday.
The January 2020 election — in which Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen clinched a second term in a landslide and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) maintained a legislative majority — came as Hong Kongers protested a bill that would allow authorities to extradite suspects to mainland China. The demonstrations were crushed by force, paving the way for the imposition of a draconian national security law in June 2020, under which hundreds of democracy activists and opposition legislators have been arrested.
