In the 2016 general election, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected President of the Republic of China. She campaigned on a moderate platform of largely maintaining the status quo, while implementing small shifts in economic and foreign policy meant to diversify Taiwan's export market away from the People's Republic of China.
The KMT suffered substantial losses in the Legislative Yuan, retaining only 35 seats against the DPP's 68, the NPP's 5 and the PFP's 3. It constituted an exceptionally significant defeat, granted the substantial loss they suffered in the 2014 county and municipal elections.
Analysts attributed the DPP's success in part to their managing to capitalise on the middle class's frustration over economic slowdown perceived to be caused by overreliance on the increasingly stagnating Chinese market.
