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Taiwan

Monthly Updates

January 2023

Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior lifted restrictions on registering same-sex marriage between Taiwanese and foreign nationals on 9 January, with the exception of mainland Chinese citizens. While Taiwan was the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, it had not previously allowed registration if one partner was a citizen of a jurisdiction where same-sex marriage was illegal.

November 2022

President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) following DPP losses in the local election held on 29 November. DPP secured only five out of 22 municipalities, whereas the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) emerged victorious in winning 13 seats. The voter turnout rate was relatively low for Taiwanese local elections, at approximately 60 per cent. Voters also rejected lowering the voting age from 20 to 18, in a referendum that ran alongside the elections. 

October 2022

Taiwanese law enforcement agencies arrested over 250 suspected gang members on 21 October to deter organized crime-led violence explicitly linked to vote-buying ahead of the 26 November local elections. Over 50 illegal firearms were confiscated, with at least 45 major criminal figures identified among the suspects.  The arrests mark the fourth major joint campaign by law enforcement to crack down on organized crime over the past several years, with many of those arrested strongly linked to pro-China political and economic positions. 

September 2022

Ahead of local elections scheduled for 26 November, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen called for "domestic political unity" in combatting Chinese disinformation efforts aimed at polarizing Taiwanese society. The last local election in 2018 saw Chinese state-aligned actors spreading pro-unification rhetoric that sought to weaken public trust in the government and promote pro-China candidates. Taiwan's government is actively working with civil society organizations and social media companies to counter false narratives with fact-checking tools without repressing the freedom of speech. Examples include improving media literacy and civic learning; tinkering with algorithms and working with social media platforms to identify and keep misinformation off the top of people's social media feeds instead of directly censoring specific narratives. 

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GSoD Indices Data 2012-2021

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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
23 894 394
System of government
Semi-Presidential system
Head of government
Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang (since 2019)
Head of government party
Democratic Progressive Party
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
Parallel
Women in lower or single chamber
42.0%
Women in upper chamber
Not applicable
Last legislative election
2020
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
3.32
Head of state
President Tsai Ing-wen
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (plurality)
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Attributes Over Time

Representative government neutral Representative Government
Sep 2022
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Representative government neutral Fundamental rights
Sep 2022
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Representative government neutral Checks on government
Sep 2022
Oct
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Representative government neutral Impartial administration
Sep 2022
Oct
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Feb 2023
Representative government neutral Participatory engagement
Sep 2022
Oct
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Dec
Jan
Feb 2023

GSoD Indices

Regime type
0 10