Relations between China and Taiwan have nose-dived since the election of the island's independence-leaning president in 2016 and are now poised to plummet even further. President Tsai Ing-wen's strong defense of Taiwan's sovereignty in the face of the ongoing Hong Kong protests has helped pull her back from the brink of political death ahead of the island's Jan. 11 presidential elections . Not only is Tsai widely expected to beat the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) candidate, but the support garnered by the Hong Kong crisis has also greatly improved the prospects of her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in concurrent legislative elections. A victory by Tsai and the DPP would clear the way for Taiwan to continue inching toward independence with the help of the United States, even if doing so means inviting harder-line policies from China.