Taipei: The failure of Taiwan’s legislative recall campaign on Saturday shows that broad, one-size-fits-all anti-China messaging is losing traction with voters, scholars said Sunday, calling for a more nuanced approach to defending Taiwan’s democracy.

According to Focus Taiwan, twenty-four opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Kao Hung-an were up for recalls, and they all survived. A second wave of seven recall votes, along with a referendum on restarting a nuclear power plant, is set for Aug. 23.

The clean sweep by KMT lawmakers, who were elected in January 2024, was a stinging blow to President Lai Ching-te and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who had hoped to gain control of the Legislature by ousting some of the opposition legislators.

At a forum held to review the result, Tunghai University politics professor Albert Chiu said the recall became a contest between livelihood issues and anti-China messaging, and voters chose the former. He argued that future messaging must move beyond sweeping labels and focus on specific issues like the 1992 Consensus, a vaguely worded framework the KMT used to conduct dialogue with Beijing when in power from 2008 to 2016 that said there is only “one China,” with each side free to interpret what “China” means.

Chiu cautioned against framing all KMT lawmakers as pro-China, saying that approach risked alienating moderate and younger voters who did not experience past KMT authoritarianism or cross-Taiwan Strait hostility firsthand. “Anti-Communist China narratives need to be more targeted and patient,” he said.