What’s at stake in Taiwan’s elections? China says it could be a choice between peace and war

Taiwan is holding a presidential election on Saturday that neighboring China has warned could mean the difference between peace and war on the island, which Beijing claims as its territory even though Taiwan has governed itself for nearly three-quarters of a century.

The election is believed to be a close race between the candidate of the incumbent party that Beijing has described as independence-minded and the candidate of the main opposition party, which is seen as standing for warmer ties with the mainland.

Voters also will be choosing members of Taiwan’s legislature following a campaign season that has focused largely on bread-and-butter domestic issue s like inflation in housing costs and the island republic’s sluggish economy.

WHO’S RUNNING?

Vice President Lai Ching-te, who also is known as William Lai, is running as the candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP. The Harvard-educated physician and politician of 25 years drew China’s ire years ago for calling himself a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence,” though he doesn’t rule out talks with China.

The other main candidate is Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition Koumintang, or KMT. His party is the heir of the government that retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war against its rival Chinese Communist Party on the mainland.

Nowadays, KMT is considered generally friendlier to China than the DPP. The current mayor of New Taipei, Hou served as the head of the island’s police force before transitioning to politics in 2010.

A third presidential candidate is Ko Wen-je of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party, which he founded in 2019. An outspoken surgeon-turned-politician, Ko, whose victory is viewed as a long shot, advocates for a middle