ABSTRACT
President Tsai Ing-wen’s firm, albeit cautious response to Beijing’s decision to ramp up its coercive activities against Taiwan, and the concessions she made early on in her administration on the country’s nomenclature caused dismay within the “deep green” side of the political spectrum. Seeing an international context which they saw as an unprecedented opportunity for Taiwan to move toward de jure independence and to clean the system, President Tsai’s careful approach to these matters eventually turned into accusations that she was no better than her predecessors from the KMT and that she opposed Taiwan independence. That segment of Taiwanese politics, though never strong or influential enough to cause serious damage to the Tsai administration, has nevertheless been a source of pressure for more hardline policies, as well as a contributor to disinformation in an environment that, under Chinese pressure, is awash in “fake news.”
