Taiwanese voters have called back the government for a US pork referendum

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory over the weekend with four referendums backed by opponents opposed to his government’s policies as well as allowing U.S. pigs not to cross.

The results reduce the risk of reducing Tsai’s pressure on Taiwan to enter into regional trade agreements, closer trade ties with Washington and efforts to convert more electricity from coal to gas.

Taipei is running camels with the US on trade agreements between the two countries, and more recently work to enter into a Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Both measures are necessary for Taiwan to thwart China’s efforts isolation the country to destroy its trade-dependent economy.

Za ku Kuomintang, a major opposition party in Taiwan that has campaigned vigorously to vote if it rejects the Tsai government, the results show another serious defeat following their loss in the January 2020 presidential election.

Four questions on the ballot, two of which were initiated by KMT MPs and two others with the help of the party, failed to attract enough people and go as the party pushed.

More than 40 percent of voters who voted rejected the idea of ​​banning imported meat containing ractopamine supplements, which are used to promote muscle growth and weight loss.

He also rejected the idea of ​​re-establishing a mothball-based nuclear power plant and relocating LNG-built nuclear power plants, where between 51 and 52 percent of the votes cast cast.

A fourth proposal, that referendums should be held simultaneously with elections, was won by 57 percent of the vote.

Political analysts say the incident reflects the efforts of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai himself pleaded with the people until the last day to “give the four numbers”.

Although he appealed to voters to boycott all four referendums, Tsai said: “There are no winners or losers in the referendum, but a question for the future of the country.”

He also said in a post-election statement that the vote had sent a message that Taiwanese people “want to go to the rest of the world and participate in international affairs”.

If the pig export referendum had passed, the Tsai government would have been forced to reinstate the import ban, which trade experts said would undermine Taiwan’s credibility in international trade unions.

Aside from the inconvenience caused to the polls, the polls showed a decrease in referendums in Taiwan’s politics. The DPP, which advocated for direct democratization in the country’s politics, used its majority of laws two years ago to dissolve referendums in the KMT party elections that seem to have benefited the most from the recent referendums. Saturday voting was the first test of a new system.

Eric Chu, chairman of the KMT, said the referendum results severely damaged Taiwan’s democracy and criticized Tsai as a dictator based on democracy.

“For Taiwan’s ‘democratic government’, this is a victory, but for any group of people who are striving to promote democracy, for every citizen of the world, this is extremely destructive,” he said. “The referendum is dead. After today, it will be very difficult for every referendum to go through the ‘bird cage’ referendum process. “