Taiwanese Americans Fly From SoCal To Help Pick Taiwan's Next President

Published Jan 11, 2024 4:52 PM

At the forefront of the photo is a hand from an unseen person holding up a green sign that reads "Team Taiwan" in English. In the background are hundreds of campaign supporters, many wearing bright magenta baseball caps.

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Pasadena resident Vera Yang took 10 days off from her sales job for something much more important to her than a vacation: picking Taiwan's next president.

Saturday's election will decide whether the ruling Democratic People's Party keeps its grip on power or if two rival parties favoring more conciliatory relations with China prevail at the polls and take over the presidency and the legislature.

A Taiwanese man and woman wearing green jackets raise their hands together, while standing at a podium in front of a crowd of other Taiwanese people wearing the same green jackets.

Yang, who supports the DPP, is among the thousands of Taiwanese Americans who hold dual citizenship and returned to Taiwan to have their vote counted.

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"A lot of my friends are coming back yesterday or today even," said Yang, 48. "I have a few friends who are arriving on the day of the election."

There is no official count of how many Taiwanese Americans make the trans-Pacific trip to vote, but it far surpasses the nearly 4,200 people who have registered for the election with the country's Central Election Commission.

A Taiwanese man wearing a white jacket with a Taiwan flag raises his arms with a crowd of Taiwanese men and women behind him.

Taiwanese Americans who have spent enough time on the island over the last two years do not have to register, according to the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Los Angeles, which offers consular services.

The DPP’s presidential candidate Lai Ching-te is in a three-way race with Hou Yu-ih of its main opposition party the Kuomintang, which wants closer ties to China and Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party, which is attracting younger voters disillusioned by unaffordable housing and the wealth gap.

Yang, who leads the DPP's West chapter, is criss-crossing the country with about 130 other DPP supporters from Southern California, and said similar groups are doing so for the other parties. They had hit campaign rallies in a host of cities including Nantou, Changhua and Taichung.

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A Taiwanese man in a white jacket raises his index finger as he stands at a podium with a sign that reads "KP: Keep Promise."

Yang said Taiwanese Americans are very tied to their home country and feel there is a lot at stake on the international stage as well as domestically.

Yang has been following Taiwanese politics closely even after emigrating to the U.S. during the 1990s — when Taiwan held its first direct presidential election.

"It was during that time Taiwan was stepping into being a true democracy country," Yang said.

She realized she didn't have to watch from afar. Yang has voted in every Taiwanese presidential election since 2012.