In a referendum on Saturday, Taiwanese voters decided the outcome of four ballot questions, with results characterized as a victory for the Western-leaning government of President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and a setback for the opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, which has historically sought closer ties with Beijing. 

Taiwanese voters ultimately aligned with Tsai’s preferred stances on each of the four ballot questions. The most prominent of the four rejected the renewal of a ban on pork imports containing ractopamine, a controversial feed additive. The DPP also claimed victory on the three other questions, which proposed resuming construction on a suspended nuclear plant, moving a liquefied natural gas terminal to protect an algae reef, and holding referendum votes in conjunction with regular elections. Voters respectively chose to shelve the nuclear plant, leave the gas terminal in place, and keep the two elections separate. 

The pork ban was of particular interest to the United States, as ractopamine is used in an estimated 60 to 80 percent of U.S. pork production. The additive is designed to promote food conversion efficiency in pigs, but questions have dogged its safety since its introduction, and it is banned in 160 countries worldwide, including Russia, mainland China, and the constituent nations of the European Union. Twenty-seven other countries, including the United States, Japan, and South Korea, consider it safe. 

The additive had also been subject to a ban in Taiwan until January 2021, when Tsai suspended it in order to promote commercial relations between Taiwan and the United States. The ban was seen as an obstacle to a potential free-trade agreement between Washington and Taipei, and Tsai had voiced her hope that its removal would lead to closer economic ties between the two. 

However, ractopamine is highly controversial in Taiwan, where food safety is a high-priority issue for many of the island’s residents. The decision to annul the ban led to street protests, as well as a brawl involving pig guts in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s parliament. 

Prior to the results, the referendum was also framed by both parties as a vote of confidence in Tsai’s leadership. The outcome will likely strengthen her hand in her remaining two years in office; her second and final term ends in 2024. 

Eric Chu, the Kuomintang’s leader, cited the contest’s low turnout as a reason for the loss. Only 41 percent of Taiwanese voters showed up to the polls, a low number for the island’s historically hotly-contested elections. 

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest. 

Image: Reuters