Taiwan prepares for a vote that could shake the world

Published

2 years ago

January 13, 2024

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There is pride and patriotism in Taipei on the last day of campaigning before a vote that could shake the world.

At the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) final rally, thousands gather waving flags and screaming along to songs.

Some jump up and down with excitement – one young man with a pride banner openly weeps.

Lai Ching-te is the DPP candidate and the person most likely to win.

His party was formed from a protest movement, but now stands squarely behind one key message: standing up to China.

Election season in Taiwan is always about so much more than just domestic policy, it is about people asking themselves who they are, how they identify and how they feel about their powerful neighbour.

In his speech, Mr Lai invoked former instances when China fired missiles at the island.

“I gave up my well-paid job and decided to follow the footsteps of our elders in democracy,” he said.

Indeed, he is framing this whole election as a choice between democracy and autocracy.

That message has clearly landed with the people we spoke to here, most were unequivocal about what their motivations are.

“China wants to take over Taiwan,” one woman told us. “This election is about freedom, democracy and human rights.”

Choice between ‘war and peace’

Of course, China sees DPP supporters as separatists and sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will soon be reunified, if necessary by force.

That context weighs heavily on voters.

Indeed, cross-strait relations have plummeted in recent years and China has described the vote as a choice between “war and peace”.

The opposition candidate Hou Yu-ih has used a similar framing, he wants greater dialogue with the mainland.

His supporters are equally passionate, albeit with a slightly older average age, many of them want to talk about peace.

“I feel like the DPP has been causing chaos,” one woman told us. “It seems like they want the mainland to attack us.”

But Mr Hou has also been criticised for lacking a long-term strategy, when I asked him directly if he believes the status quo could last forever he evaded the question,

“The current situation under the DPP, is no longer the status quo,” he said.

“It’s gradually shifted, due to the confrontation between the two sides, we are on the brink of war.”

A three-horse race?

There is a third force in this vote, a new party, the TPP, led by a man called Ko Wen-je.

He’s been attracting a lot of younger voters with his focus on domestic issues as hundreds queued round the streets to see him.

His party could yet disrupt things.

Disinformation could prove most destructive

But potentially the most disruptive force this time round is election interference with major concerns about the amount of disinformation flooding Taiwanese social media.

At a small firm called the Doublethink Lab, they are tracking the videos as they appear, trying to detect where they are from and how they are amplifying.

A lot are accusing Lai of things like extramarital affairs. Many of them are AI-generated and have clear signs they are coming from China.

“Foreign actors, they have almost unlimited resources and they have a clear goal to influence our own election. It’s an imbalanced fight,” Doublethink’s chief executive tells us.

It’s unclear how China will react to the vote, it has remained relatively quiet this week.

Taiwan is one of the most progressive places in Asia, but its politics remain some of the most complicated and some of the most high stakes.

World

Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine – as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Published

12 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine - as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.

Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.

“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”

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Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.

Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.

The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.

It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.

During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.

After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”

Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.

He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.

World

At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

1 day ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

World

Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.