Taiwan Green Party

Taiwan Green Party logo (top)

Wang Chung-Ming , a leading Green Party activist, with the party flag at a demonstration on November 13, 2010

Li Ken-cheng (李根政, October 2014), former party leader of the GPT

The Taiwan Green Party ( GPT , Chinese  台灣 綠黨 , Pinyin Táiwān Lǜ Dǎng , Taiwanese : Tâi-ôan Le̍k Tóng) is a small political party in the Republic of China in Taiwan that advocates a green policy .

Party history and program

The Taiwan Green Party was founded on January 25, 1996, a few years after Taiwan democratization began, under the leadership of Kao Cheng-yen (高 成 炎). Until the 1990s, environmental protection and civil rights issues were largely represented by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). After democratization, the DPP established itself as the main opposition party to the previously ruling Kuomintang . An increasing gap developed between environmental activists and civil rights activists and the DPP party leadership. The former accused the DPP of making too many compromises in its pursuit of political power. The disputes over the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant (N4PS) in Taiwan, against which the DPP opposed only half-heartedly, according to environmentalists, became a central point of contention. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Taiwan Green Party.

The topics of the GPT correspond to the topics of other green parties worldwide and the party is committed to the four basic principles of ecological sustainability , grassroots democracy , social justice and world peace. In the election to the National Assembly in 1996 , the newly founded party put up a total of 13 candidates, who together achieved more than 100,000 votes, which did not result in seats in the National Assembly , but was seen as a respectable success. In 1997, the party formulated a political program that included the following core content: a socially fair tax reform with higher taxes for the “super-rich”, tax relief for low-wage earners, energy efficiency measurements and a better system of recycling raw materials, a clear definition of the long-term Development goals of the Taiwanese society, an increased participation of employees and workers in company decisions. With regard to the energy industry, the party spoke out in favor of discontinuing plans for a fourth nuclear power plant in Taiwan and for the three existing nuclear power plants to be closed as soon as possible. Energy saving should be promoted and energy generation should be converted to biogas, geothermal energy and renewable energies. Polluting industries such as the petroleum processing, steel and cement industries should be scaled back. Politically, the party spoke out in favor of constitutional reforms. The Taiwanese constitution should be supplemented with additions that the Republic of China in Taiwan is a nuclear weapon-free, non-alliance, neutral and ecologically committed state. The possibility of nationwide direct popular initiatives and referendums should be included in the constitution. A women's quota of 30% for the elected parliament and the government should be established by law. With regard to the dispute over Taiwan's political status (Taiwan's unilateral declaration of independence or continued adherence to the goal of “reunification of China”), the Green Party avoided a clear statement for a long time. In recent times, however, she has come out in favor of Taiwan's right to self-determination and Taiwan's independence. Before the presidential election on January 11, 2020 , the party declared its support for DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen.

From April 30 to May 2, 2010, the party hosted the second congress of the Asia Pacific Greens Network (APGN), in which green parties from various countries in Asia and Australia / Oceania work together, in Taipei .

Previous election results

Shortly after it was founded in 1996, the party achieved a respectable success in the 1996 election to the National Assembly . The GPT received 1.1% of the vote. She achieved the highest percentage of votes with 8.8% in the district of Yunlin , where Kao Meng-ting (高 孟 定) was the only one of their 13 candidates to be elected in the constituency of Yunlin-1 . After 1996, however, the GPT quickly fell in favor of the electorate and almost completely disappeared from the political scene between 1999 and 2005. Since 2006, the party has been slowly rising again. So far, she has not won any seats in the elections for the legislative yuan (a 5 percent threshold clause applies to party list candidates ). In the 2014 regional elections, the party achieved its first major success and was able to send two MPs to the Hsinchu County Council and Taoyuan City Council . Before the election to the Legislative Yuan in 2016 , the GPT formed an electoral alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party of Taiwan. This alliance received 2.5% of the vote. Then the Green Party dissolved the alliance with the Social Democrats.

Taiwan Green Party election results

Nationwide choice	be right	percent
Election to the National Assembly 1996	113,949	1.1%
Election of the Legislative Yuan in 1998	8089	0.1%
Election of the Legislative Yuan 2001	1045	<0.1%
Election of the Legislative Yuan in 2004	14,767	0.15%
Election of the Legislative Yuan in 2008	79,729	0.62%
Election of the Legislative Yuan 2012	229,566	1.74%
Election of the Legislative Yuan 2016 †	308.106	2.53%
Election of the legislative yuan 2020	341,465	2.41%

^† Joint electoral list with the Taiwan Social Democratic Party.

Web links

• Taiwan Green Party website (Chinese, partly English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dafydd Fell, Yen-Wen Peng: The Electoral Fortunes of Taiwan's Green Party: 1996–2012 . In: Japanese Journal of Political Science . tape 17 , no. 1 . Cambridge University Press, March 2016, pp. 63-83 , doi : 10.1017 / S1468109915000390 (English).
2. ^ ^{A b} History of Green Party Taiwan. Taiwan Green Party, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
3. ^ Green Party Taiwan's Position on Economic Development. Taiwan Green Party, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
4. ^ Green Party Taiwan's Energy Policy. Taiwan Green Party, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
5. ^ Green Party Taiwan's Position on Taiwan's Constitution Reform. Taiwan Green Party, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Keli Yen (顏克莉): Taiwan Green Party 2016 Elections: Q&A with Ken-cheng Lee, former Party Co-Chair. globalgreens.org, May 24, 2016, accessed September 10, 2017 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Chris Chang: Voices of the 2020 Taiwan legislative elections: Green Party Taiwan. Taiwan News, December 30, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 . 
8. ^ Growing Green Politics in the Asia Pacific: The 2010 Asia Pacific Greens Network Congress 30 April - 2 May 2010, Taiwan. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Europeangreens.eu, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on December 29, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Lii Wen: 2014 ELECTIONS: Smaller parties clinch big victories. Taipei Times, December 1, 2014, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
10. ^ Abraham Gerber: Greens, Social Democrats to cooperate. Taipei Times, August 18, 2015, accessed December 29, 2015 .