This episode looks at the events and situations that have unfolded in Taiwan since the presidential election in January 2024 and the U.S. elections in November 2024 — focusing especially on the various domestic developments during the summer of 2025.

Jean-François Di Meglio, honorary Chairman of Asia Cente, interviews Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy about the current domestic situation and international position of Taiwan. Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy is Adjunct Assistant Professor at National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, and currently visiting fellow at the Martens Centre in Brussels.

While our discussion relates mainly to Taiwan’s internal politics, it is impossible to separate them from the island’s position on the global scene.

The DPP administration, often (and wrongly) labeled as “independence-oriented,” continues to face a challenging domestic situation. In July and August, Taiwan saw a series of popular elections — a unique feature of its democracy, where citizens can trigger votes with enough signatures. The ruling DPP called one election, while the opposition KMT initiated another to challenge the validity of several members of parliament. The KMT-led initiative failed, which in a way strengthened the DPP, as those MPs remain in office. However, since no party holds a parliamentary majority — and Taiwan’s system does not allow for cohabitation — the political situation remains quite unstable.

In August, another key event was the referendum on the last nuclear power plant. Although a majority voted to keep it running, turnout was too low for the result to be valid. These examples illustrate how divided Taiwanese society has become — divisions that are also reflected in its relations with mainland China. Beijing continues to leverage these internal tensions to influence parts of Taiwanese public opinion.

From Brussels, Taiwan’s situation may seem distant, but it remains essential to connect both worlds and to identify opportunities for mutual learning.

The domestic landscape is challenging: polarization has deepened in recent years. Not everything is about China — the nuclear referendum, for instance, shows the diversity of issues that divide public opinion. The recall votes targeting 24 MPs were another sign of how vivid Taiwan’s democracy is. For some, these votes were not a political tool but a necessary democratic exercise, particularly among those opposing the KMT’s ties with Beijing. Even though the recalls failed, they mobilized civil society and demonstrated how a democracy functions. Others, however, fear that such processes only intensify divisions and weaken democratic trust.

President Lai has tried to steer the discussion away from polarization, but the key challenge remains: how to rebuild trust and find compromise. Taiwan’s future depends on its political forces finding common ground, because the only actor benefiting from deeper divisions is Beijing — whose interest lies in eroding Taiwan’s democracy from within and diminishing public trust in its institutions.

This episode explores these tensions and opportunities, focusing on the central questions of trust, compromise and resilience — within Taiwan’s domestic politics, across the Strait, and in its broader global relations.

This work is part of a European Commission project “China Horizons” (formal name is “Dealing with a resurgent China” or DWARC) which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement number 101061700. The project is one of the EU-funded flagship projects to upgrade independent knowledge on China in Europe. The three-year project started in November 2022.