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Today in Focus

The Chinese shadow over Taiwan’s election

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How are presidential candidates in Taiwan responding to the ongoing threat of invasion from China? Amy Hawkins reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian. Today, what do you do about a much bigger bully?

0:14.0

Fight it? Or try to make nice.

0:17.0

In Taiwan, voters decide on two very different approaches to China. If you want to start eating healthier, start with breakfast.

0:35.0

The best part, it doesn't have to take much time.

0:39.0

Blend some frozen fruit, a handful of boats and a splash of milk for a quick nourishing breakfast when

0:45.7

you're on the move.

0:48.2

For more health and well-being tips, visit the Guardian.com forward slash Aviva Health.

0:54.4

This message was paid for by Aviva. You're going to be. I'm in Taipei at the moment and the mood is very very excited and energetic.

1:21.0

The election is on Saturday and it's the presidential election and

1:26.2

parliamentary elections. Amy Hawkins is the Guardian's Senior China

1:30.0

correspondent and though she covers an area of more than a billion people she really gets to cover a real election. A few days ago I went to a Democratic Progressive Party rally in Geelong which is a city kind of just on the edge of Taipei and you know there are thousands of people

1:54.2

there all in the party's green colours mainly elderly voters but still really

1:59.5

excitable and there were you know there's lots of singing, a very, very kind of enthusiastic

2:06.7

atmosphere.

2:07.7

What is it, mass and then, mass and there.

2:12.4

But a lot of talk at the Democratic Progressive Party rally about, you know, this is a choice between democracy versus autocracy and they kind of present themselves at the party that will preserve Taiwan's democracy.

2:23.2

They release this very popular campaign video which shows sighing when the current president

2:34.7

driving down the road with Leichingda, her vice president who's now running for the top job and then she

2:40.8

hands over the keys to him and he's going to continue taking Taiwan down this

2:44.4

road to democracy.

2:46.4

It's an election about the cost of living, health care, the usual stuff.

2:54.5

But above all that, a much bigger threat, the very fate of Taiwan's democracy itself. So at the Democratic Progressive Party rally I spoke to a young woman called Bing Bing

...

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