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  • Hello everyone! Welcome to "A Laowai's View of Taiwan." I am Ben Hedges.

  • After this crucial election in Taiwan, all candidates called upon the Taiwanese people to reunite.

  • The elected President Tsai also said that people in our democracy should practice the skill of stamping.

  • In additional to local media, there were also 113 foreign media that came to cover the elections in Taiwan.

  • My coworkers, the China Uncensored production team also visited Taiwan.

  • Let's take a look at what they think about the elections.

  • What has your feeling been covering the election these past few days in the Taiwan?

  • It's been inspiring being in Taiwan to see the elections.

  • I mean in the US voter turnout is low people don't really have the the passion

  • about democracy but coming here and like seeing how much it means to people

  • it's incredible. Because many people here they lived under martial law they know what

  • democracy means and they're willing to go out and vote for it be part of the system. It's wonderful.

  • everybody we talked to outside the polling stations

  • yesterday we asked them if Hong Kong influence their vote and the majority of

  • people said that really made them think either about preserving the freedoms

  • that Taiwan currently has or they just explicitly said we don't want to be the

  • next Hong Kong the most memorable thing for me was

  • yesterday we went to district 4 to look at the actual counting of the ballots

  • you know It's like, “Tsai Ing-wen, One vote. Han Kuo-Yu, one vote!” And that was amazing to see,

  • that you've got people counting the ballots then you've got the public

  • they're monitoring this, and it's this this amazing system where it keeps

  • everyone really honest. How did it make you feel?

  • I felt moved to see just how much people are directly participating in that democracy.

  • It's been amazing actually I would say that seeing Taiwan's democracy

  • gave me hope in democracy again in a way. Because there are a lot of it's more

  • direct here it's more grassroots in a way. Because I live in New York City so

  • you know a lot of the election stuff in the U.S. that happens in Iowa or happened

  • in New Hampshire. Nobody comes to New York City to like go shake hands

  • with people on the street right, so seeing how dedicated the politicians

  • were to trying to serve their constituents here, seeing people take

  • voting so seriously, seeing people going to the you know ballot counting to watch them like

  • it was literally like every vote counts and that's something you

  • don't really feel as much in America so that was an amazing experience.

  • What has your impression been of the way Taiwanese people view the foreigners coming here to cover the election?

  • Well it's been very interesting. I went to a press conference

  • for one of the political candidates and then afterwards some of the local

  • Taiwanese media started interviewing me which was kind of surprised and then

  • there was a big story about me having beef hotpot. But I think a lot of it is

  • you know just Taiwan has not gotten the recognition it deserves internationally

  • and so I think they want to get some recognition and absolutely Taiwan is one

  • of the largest most thriving democracies in Asia it's a country that deserves

  • this kind of international respect and recognition and I think the elections

  • really made the world take another look at Taiwan.

  • The Taiwanese media seemed to be very interested in covering how much Western media are covering

  • Taiwan and in fact they interviewed Chris on a couple different TV stations

  • about his coverage. Chris had gone to an Enoch Wu press conference then other

  • media ended up doing a story about how Western media are covering the Taiwan

  • elections so that kind of meta. But I think it's really good to see how much

  • America cares, and other countries care. Because to a degree this election in

  • Taiwan is a referendum on cross-strait relations and other countries are

  • increasingly realizing how important cross-strait relations are and how they

  • need to support the Taiwan government because they're under constant threat

  • How did you feel when you saw the result of a yesterday's election?

  • It's amazing definitely there was a lot of nerves going on before the election

  • because nobody really knew what was going to happen.

  • Polling had been kind of blacked out ten days before the election I guess and you

  • know people who were like looking at the rallies the Han Kuo-yu was having and

  • there was a lot of people very passionate about him so it was really

  • so it was really kind ofwho's going to win? Nobody knows.

  • And then just Wow! A landslide.

  • DPP took the legislative win. Tsai Ing-wen landslide victory. It's really wild.

  • But I think Tsai Ing-wen interesting made an interesting point in her victory speech

  • that it didn't matter if she won, or if Han Kuo-Yu won, what mattered was that this is victory for democracy.

  • Sure, but I think it really still mattered who won.

  • Well, she was being very gracious.

  • Would you say it's kind of like a historic election considering you know

  • what it was a choice between? There was definitely parallels between this

  • election than the recent elections in Hong Kong. In Taiwan and Hong Kong what

  • you saw is the population saying we do not want the Chinese Communist Party so

  • that is that as a victory for freedom and democracy globally. Do you also think

  • that Taiwan is important as an example to Hong Kong or is in some way

  • influencing Hong Kong if things go well in Taiwan it's you know has a good

  • effect in Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong and Taiwan are both

  • inspiring each other definitely the bravery of the Hong Kong protesters

  • played a big part in this election as well and I was at many of the rallies

  • here and there are Hong Kong protesters who came to see this kind of democracy

  • in action so I think they are also being inspired by the people of Taiwan so I

  • think both Hong Kong and Taiwan can really be a powerful force for bringing

  • mostly democracy to mainland China.

  • Aside from western media, let's take a look at what other western people in Taiwan think about the elections.

  • I'm very new to Taiwan I moved to here like at the beginning of January.

  • But it's it's very nice to see that in a society

  • with a lot of ethnically Chinese people you can have like so much debate and so

  • much democracy going on and it's... I mean it gives a lot of hope for

  • for China for the mainland of China I mean it's not just Taiwan can have

  • democracy but China can have democracy as well and I'm quite happy about the

  • results of the elections because then we can keep the Communist out of Taiwan,

  • and hopefully one day they will out of China. But for now yeah I think it's a good.

  • I think its's a good result for Taiwan.

  • There are a lot better position re-electing her than electing someone as unhinged and brash as the KMT candidate.

  • I think the KMT are going to have to go back and reinvent themselves somewhat,

  • that was not a good candidate they put up.

  • It's been amazing. It's amazing like I guess Taiwan would be considered like a new democracy

  • and you can see yeah so you can really see like how seriously people are taking

  • it I think we in the West could probably learn something from it.

  • Taiwan very strong sense of democracy so I wasn't really worried.

  • A lot of my friends were but for them you know...

  • Taiwanese friends?

  • Yes, but some foreign friends too. Foreign friends were also worries about the results too,

  • but the other thing too is that we sometimes forget that even though that

  • we have different beliefs you know there's still people at the end of the day.

  • And I found people that you know even though I've that I could I know

  • what they believe in and they've I might disagree with them that they were still

  • nice people at the end of the day. You know and sometimes we can forget about.

  • Also, in her speech Tsai Ing-wen kind of said that,

  • I don't know if you saw it last night, but she said words to that effectlike we have to come together, that kind of thing.

  • Yeah you know like I was on the bus, and people might deride Tsai supporter and Han fans,

  • But I was on the bus. There was a guy all dolled up in Han fan clothing. He had everything.

  • But yes I was carrying a bunch of stuff and he still gave me the seat.

  • Like it's still a normal person right. We forget about that a lot

  • you know even if Han wins you know we have a there's a democracy that means

  • needs to be maintained. The democracy doesn't end at the voting booth.

  • It ends when we challenge our MPs.

  • Okay. That's our show for today! What do you think?

  • What are your views of the elections or the future of Taiwan?

  • You're welcome to leave your comments or subscribe our channel.

  • That's all for today. See you next time!

  • And that beef hotpot story did have education value. I learned personally you know you put in there for 3 seconds only to get done.

  • 10 seconds. Sorry to correct you. But the story said 3 secs?

  • Then they got wrong. The person told us was 10 secs.

  • What's difference between this time and last time?

  • The last time we were here we weren't covering elections so it's hard to make

  • a direct comparison. But I will say that my favorite thing about coming here was

  • actually meeting Ben Hedges from "A Laowai's View of China and Taiwan."

  • Well thank you so much for coming to me. Awesome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to "A Laowai's View of Taiwan." I am Ben Hedges.

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