On January 21, the Ministry of Labor temporarily withheld a plan to lower thresholds for foreign talent to legally work in Taiwan. The proposed changes would have allowed for more foreign lower-tiered white collar workers to enter Taiwan’s workforce.
In the last decade, new forms of domestic tourism, coupled with the routinization of travel abroad, have enabled the young to confront their land and their position in the world at a younger age than previous generations.
As recent events point out, Taiwan has a long way to go towards changing its views about its own standing in the world. Becoming globally relevant is not only a matter of the economy and diplomacy, but it is a matter of identity.
Nearly 2 million people voted for parties that were left out of the final makeup of the legislature. Though some of these 14 unsuccessful parties attracted meaningful levels of support, none surpassed 5% nationally, so at the end of this process, their supporters’ votes would appear to be discarded.
On Saturday 16th January, more than 20,000 ardent supporters crammed outside DPP headquarters in Taipei to hear Tsai Ing-wen’s first speech as Taiwan’s President-Elect.