My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkutin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Straight island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Tuesday, sixteenth of January.
I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
Voters in Taiwan have elected Li Chingtur from the Democratic Progressive Party as their new leader. It's a history making election for Taiwan, marking the first time a political party in Taiwan has won a third straight presidential election and the result sends a very clear message from the people of Taiwan. They want independence from China. We're going to tell you what you need to know in today's deep dive. First Sam, what are the headlines.
More packages of cocaine have washed up on New South Wales shores after police discovered several suspicious packages last month. Since the twenty second of December, over two hundred kilos of cocaine bricks have washed up on beaches from Wollongong and Sydney's North all the way up to the Central Coast and Newcastle. Investigators are working with ocean current analysts to determine where and when the packages may have entered the water. They're also seeking advice from experts on barnacles
to analyze a growth timeline. Early estimates indicate the packages were in the water for about four to six weeks.
The wealth of the world's five richest people has more than doubled since twenty twenty. That's according to a new report on inequality from Oxfam. The report found that the most wealthy one percent owns forty three percent of the world's financial assets and individually responsible for the same amount of carbon pollution as two thirds of the poorest people in the world come bind. Oxfam also found the wealth of more than five billion people has fallen since twenty twenty.
The twenty twenty three Emmy Awards will take place in la today, months later than scheduled due to delays from the Hollywood Actors and Writers' strikes. Succession leads the nominations. The HBO drama is up for twenty seven Awards, including a nomination for Ozzie Sarah Snook. Other Australian nominees include Murray Bartlett and Elizabeth Debicki. The Emmys will air live on Binge and Foxtel at midday Australian Eastern daylight time.
And the good news NATA has unveiled a new aircraft that could change the way we travel. The X fifty nine quiet supersonic aircraft is designed to fly at one point four times the speed of sound, around fifteen hundred kilometers per hour. Its narrow shape was designed to allow the aircraft to move quickly while keeping noise to a minimum. It's expected to fly for the first time later this year.
So Taiwan has a new president. His name is Leiching Ta and his victory is the third successive win for Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party. Now, importantly, that party is known for supporting and promoting Taiwan's separate identity from China. It's one of those really complex, interesting geopolitical issues that comes
up in the news quite a bit. Now. It is Taiwan's complex relationship with China which really sets the context of this election and explains why the Democratic Progressive party's win is so significant and why we want to talk about it today, Zara, Why don't we start with setting the scene of Taiwan's relationship with China.
Yeah, So, Taiwan is an island and it's separated from China by the Taiwan Strait. Now, Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state, so that just basically means that it's independent from any other powers. So it sees itself as its own country with its own government. On the flip side, though, China views Taiwan as one of its provinces and so that it will inevitably reunify Taiwan with the rest of China.
It's spoken repeatedly of that reunification of Taiwan and said that it must be fulfilled and that it has the right to actually use military force.
To do this.
And so there is this ongoing tension between what China is saying and what Taiwan is saying.
So now place Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party in that context.
Yeah, So that's the party that won over the weekend, and first and foremost, they promote the independence of Taiwan, and that is their fundamental principle. The party believes and I quote it's a historical fact that Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China, nor does her sovereignty encompass mainland China. Another key principle is that it believes in a free and democratic country that should
rule without any violence. It's listed a range of things that it wants to do, and one of them is to restore and to develop international relations. It says that it needs to approach the current issue of its status in the international community more flexibly and proact. We'll get to what that means in a little bit, but essentially, I think the fact that they won sends a pretty strong message about what the people of Taiwan want. Though it is important to note that the DPP party did
not win a majority. They won around forty percent of the vote though.
And so the leader of that party is lighting toe. What did he say about the victory?
So after his win, he said, we didn't let external forces influence our election. That's because we decided that only we can choose our president. And he added that between democracy and authoritarianism, we choose to stand on the side of democracy. So it's very lofty language there. It shows how high stake City is for Taiwan. He really emphasized in his speech the importance of Taiwan being a democracy and the decision the people of Taiwan made in choosing
a pro democracy party. He'll now be in office for four years, but it's fair to say that he's going to face some difficult times trying to navigate Taiwan's ongoing relationship with China.
Interesting and if we heard anything from China about the new government.
So a spokesperson for China responded to the election saying that the absence of a total majority, because remember the party only won forty percent, meant that the results show that the DBP does not represent the mainstream public opinion on the island. The statement also said that this election cannot stop the general trend that the motherland will eventually be reunified and will inevitably be reunified. So China saying there that whatever is happening domestically in Taiwan, they are
still pursuing this reunification policy. The Chinese government said that Taiwan is China's Taiwan and that our position on resolving the Taiwan issue and achieving national reunification is consistent, and our will is rock solid on the new president, specifically, China previously referred to him as a troublemaker through and through, and.
Taiwan is one of those stories that always does involve the broader international community. I remember US speaker Nancy Pelosi made a really historic trip to Taiwan a couple of years ago. Have we had my much of an international response to this new government?
Yeah, So I think to answer that, we do need to just explain how international governments view this tension between Taiwan and China. So a lot of countries actually did to what's called the One China Policy, and that's just essentially a diplomatic acknowledgment of America and some other allies, including US here in Australia, that there is a sole legal government in China. That means they don't recognize Taiwan
as a country. But I should add that even though they acknowledge the One China policy, it doesn't necessarily mean that they agree with the principle itself. For example, Australia still maintains unofficial relationships with Taiwan. There are still those diplomatic channels available and following the weekend's election, the Australian government did release a statement congratulating Lie on his victory and the people of Taiwan on the peaceful exercise of
their democratic rights. Our government added that the smooth conduct of the elections is a testament to the maturity and the strength of Taiwan's democracy.
And I mentioned to the US before, did we hear anything from the US specifically on this new election.
So the US Department of State said that it looked forward to working with Lion, with Taiwan's leaders and to further the longstanding unofficial relationship. Interesting, Yeah, consistent with the US One China policy, So they were not stoking any fires there. I'd say that was fairly careful language there. President Joe Biden took it a step further. He was very clear when asked during a press conference and said,
we do not support independence. So we're unlikely to see a major change in US policy anytime soon there.
Okay, but it is going to be a big four years for Taiwan in what is a rapidly developing part of the world. So it'll be an interesting government to keep an eye on. And what a new leader in Taiwan means for the relationship with China and the broad original security. That's all we've got time for on today's episode of The Daily Oz. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. If you're here from Spotify's Daily Drive, we've got quite a few new listeners joining us after
being included in that playlist. Welcome. Make sure you give us a follow so you don't miss an episode and you're officially part of the TDA community. We'll be back again in your years tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great day.