One factor in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) defeat was that Ma’s administration responded to the Sunflower movement — an expression of young people’s concerns about jobs, about their futures being increasingly dictated by China and about problems facing young people globally — with a bloody crackdown instead of policies to address the issues raised, Wang said.

“The Ma administration should have taken the concerns expressed in the Sunflower movement seriously, but it did not give a shit about what the students thought and did not learn lessons from the movement,” Wang said. “Especially with the use of police force, the KMT has offended the entire younger generation.”

Wang said the political influence of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) family — which has played the role of a comprador in effecting China’s policies in Taiwan — would weaken in the wake of his son Sean Lien’s (連勝文) failure to win the Taipei mayoral election.