Hong Kong Unrest Stirs Anti-China Mood in Taiwan

(Bloomberg) --

As Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam fights to survive, she’s taking heat from another government whose population is similarly skeptical of Beijing: Taiwan, an island claimed by China.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has strongly supported the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who’ve opposed Lam’s “evil bill” to allow extraditions from Hong Kong to the mainland for the first time. And her government didn’t like that Lam used a grisly murder in Taiwan to justify the move.

“Embrace democracy & stand on the right side of history!” Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu implored on Twitter amid a fresh round of enormous protests over the weekend.

The issue has given Tsai — whose popularity has faltered in recent months — a bump in the polls ahead of a January election in which her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party will face a tough challenge from the more China-friendly Kuomintang.

Both parties, however, have dismissed the “one country, two systems” model that China applies to Hong Kong as unworkable in Taiwan, which already has a functioning democracy.

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the fallout from the extradition bill is proving to be a big problem. While he wants to integrate both Hong Kong and Taiwan with the mainland, Beijing's strong-arm tactics have only made their populations more wary of Xi’s rule.

“Beijing turned the whole generation of students to be dissidents,” said Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist released from prison today.

In the wake of mass protests, Lam spoke of the need to be humble and suspended consideration of the bill. To eventually win over the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Xi may need to do the same.

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--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter, Raymond Colitt and Alex Morales.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net

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