As Taiwan’s tough-on-China President Tsai Ing-wen romped to a landslide re-election Saturday, speculation already began on who will be her successor in 2024 (when, by law, Tsai must step down after two four-year terms.)
One name increasingly on Taiwanese lips is that of Chiang Wan-an — 41 years old, just re-elected to the Yuan (national legislature), a University of Pennsylvania-educated lawyer, and a fervent opponent of the “one China, two systems” policy championed by his own Kuomintang Party.
Like Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former U.S. President George W. Bush, Chiang sports a heritage that can only be dubbed illustrious. Great-grandfather Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is the legendary pro-U.S. Chinese leader driven into exile by Mao Tse-Tung’s Communists in 1949 and founder and first president of the Republic of China.
Chiang-Wan-an’s grandfather, Chiang Ching-kuo, served as Taiwan’s president from 1978 to 1988. The lawmaker’s father John Chiang is a past vice premier and foreign minister of Taiwan.
In terms of contemporary Taiwanese politics, Chiang Wan-an is essentially the Yuan’s John McCain — an unapologetic maverick who has broken with his party on relations with China.
Where most of the Kuomintang Party (KMT) embrace the “one nation, two systems” policy that opponents fear will lead to Taiwan being absorbed by China, young Chiang in January denounced the policy and embraced the stance of President Tsai must recognize the independence of the Republic of China on Taiwan and the values of freedom and democracy held dear by Taiwanese.
In speaking out for the agenda of Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party on China, Chiang was blasted widely from his own KMT and denounced as a “separatist” throughout social media.
Chiang will have a long way to go to overcome his party’s position on China and become its nominee for president in 2024. But Taiwanese on all sides agree he will be heard from increasingly in the coming years.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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