Taiwan Value () or Taiwanese Values, is a political term associated with

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

(Taiwan) president

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

. Tsai often promotes the term in her speech, which typically includes commonly accepted

values In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live ( normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different a ...

and norms of Taiwanese society. The exact definition of the Taiwan Value is ambiguous and has become controversial among media and political commentaries, and is often used satirically by the critics of

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

(DPP).

History

The term was coined by Tsai Ing-wen in her interview with

SET iNews SET iNews Channel () is a Taiwanese 24-hour news channel, broadcasting predominantly in Mandarin, owned by Sanlih E-Television and launched in May 2011 as SET Finance (), switching to its current name on 26 June 2017. It is a sister channel of SET ...

on 22 January 2018 when the program host asked Tsai if she considers

Ko Wen-je Ko Wen-je ( zh, c=柯文哲; born 6 August 1959), also known by his nickname, Ko P, is a Taiwanese politician and physician who served as the Mayor of Taipei, mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022. He founded the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in 201 ...

, then

mayor of Taipei The mayor of Taipei is the head of the Taipei City Government and is elected to a four-year term. Until the election of Tsai Ing-wen, the office was seen as a stepping stone to the President of the Republic of China, presidency: presidents Lee Ten ...

and

independent politician An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicia ...

, a political ally to her and her

(DPP). Tsai responded that she would need Ko to "affirm Taiwanese values, then will DPP voters accept him". On 23 January 2018, former DPP

legislator A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-nat ...

Lin Cho-shui asked Tsai to clarify the meaning of "Taiwan Value" as the term was ambiguous. Later Ko responded to Tsai that Taiwanese values are "

universal values A value is a universal value if it has the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. Spheres of human value encompass morality, aesthetic preference, traits, human endeavour, and social order. Whether universal values exist is an un ...

" such as democracy, freedom, human rights, and diversity. He rhetorically asked Tsai to expound her definition of Taiwanese values. Tsai was reportedly dissatisfied with Ko's answer, and told him that Taiwanese value is to "concretely realize the policies of DPP". In November 2018 Taiwanese local elections, DPP candidate for mayor of Taipei

Pasuya Yao Yao Wen-chih (; born 4 December 1965), also known by the appropriated Tsou name Pasuya Yao, is a Taiwanese film maker and former politician. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party, he served in the Legislative Yuan from 2012 to 2018. Po ...

suggested that "

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

(DPP and its allies) is Taiwan value". This speech was widely mocked by the DPP critics and became a satirical term to ridicule Tsai's government.

Political parties in Taiwan This article lists the political parties in the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 7 December 1949. The organization of political parties in Taiwan is governed by the Political Parties Act, enacted on 6 December 2017. The Political Parties Act def ...

often use the term to criticize DPP's policy or institutional incompetency. When Tsai Ing-wen visited to Caribbean diplomatic allies in 2019, she pledged to promote Taiwanese values.

References

{{reflist Tsai Ing-wen Political satire

History

See also

References