Last week, seven opposition lawmakers from Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) party survived a “recall vote” — a repeat vote triggered by civil-society groups accusing the KMT of being “pro-China” and obstructing the agenda of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — in the DPP’s second recall loss in as many months. In July, a separate recall vote targeted 24 legislators from the KMT; all of them held onto their seats.
Focus Taiwan called the result a “major defeat” for the DPP, which remains six seats short of a majority in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s legislature. Taiwanese President and DPP chairman William Lai supported the recall votes. The KMT’s chairman said "the voice of the people has triumphed over the arrogance of power.”
Canada identified Taiwan as a “key bilateral partner” in a recent Indo-Pacific Strategy implementation update. Just this month, Canada lent Taipei ‘dark vessel’ detection technology, which will help Taiwan track covert maritime activity, including by Chinese vessels.
