The Kuomintang is one of the few remaining Taiwanese institutions to hold that China and Taiwan are one country. And the party of Chiang Kai-shek, which fled to the island in 1949 after its defeat by Mao Zedong’s Red Army, has suffered for that anti-independence position. Polls conducted in the run-up to Taiwan’s local elections on Nov 26 found that most Taiwanese believed they had a separate cultural identity from China. Support for independence was at nearly the highest level on record, while support for the KMT was at 14 per cent, a record low.

Yet the KMT did much better in the elections – and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) much worse – than this would suggest. Among more than 11,000 posts up for grabs, the most prestigious were for 21 mayors and county commissioners. The KMT won 13, including plum positions in Taipei and northern Taoyuan, giving it control of four of the island’s six biggest cities. Underlining its resurgence, a great-grandson of Chiang, Mr Wayne Chiang Wan-an, was elected mayor of Taipei. The job is often seen as a route to the presidency.