Taiwan Election 2024 - Interview with Courtney Donovan Smith

Taiwan's 2024 Presidential Election is likely to have profound implications for Taiwan itself and the entire world. It's a race between the China-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) versus the China-friendly opposition parties of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP). The election outcome will likely set the frame of reference for how authoritarian China, who claim Taiwan as their sovereign territory, will advance their expansionist agenda in the future. As the world's 16th largest trading economy and supplier of 90% of advanced semiconductors, a blockade on Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) would have significant impact on global trade, never mind the effects of a potential conflict in the region. In this, the first episode of our series on Taiwan's 2024 Election, I'm delighted to welcome Courtney Donovan Smith back to the podcast. He's a regular contributing columnist for Taiwan News as well as the Central Taiwan correspondent for ICRT FM Radio and a Political Analyst at the Taiwan Report. We first spoke to Donovan back in March about a number of topics, including the upcoming election in our episode entitled Visits and Vanishing Acts. I sat down with Donovan in early November in Taichung in advance of the November 24th election registration deadline to review the leading presidential candidate line-up and hear his insights on their policies and polling performance.