Taiwan's political disrupter could be kingmaker in a split parliament. Here's why it matters

TAIPEI — "One day, we'll get our victory," Ko Wen-je, the vanquished presidential candidate for the Taiwan People's Party, said at his concession speech two weeks ago.

He urged his disappointed young supporters, some of them crying, not to give up, and framed himself as a one-man social movement crusading for political change.

"For me, over the last 10 years, whether I was in office or standing for election, I have always regarded it as a social movement aimed at changing political culture. Since this social movement has not fully materialized, let's keep working hard," the former Taipei City Mayor told supporters in Mandarin.

While he may have finished last in the first competitive three-way race for the Taiwan presidency since 2000, Ko garnered more than a quarter of the popular vote — disrupting the usual stranglehold of the dominant political parties, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and Kuomintang.

The 63-year-old clearly resonated with the young and educated as he spoke plainly into their everyday bread-and-butter issues, including soaring housing costs and stagnant wages at a time of high inflation.

"We need to take Ko's rise very seriously," Wei-Ting Yen, an assistant professor in government at Franklin and Marshall College, told CNBC. "There is a clear social base rooting for him and willing to support his populist discourse. These are anti-establishment attitudes. Is Taiwan seeing the rise of populism?"

These shades of populism, along with his shifting political affiliations in the past, contrast against Ko's self-association with the conviction and idealism of youth-led social movements in Taiwan.

A populist, often seen as anti-establishment and anti-elitism, can sometimes be deemed a threat to democracy; Ko