Taiwan's ruling party used its 40th anniversary to push back on claims it is losing young voters — a defensive move that signals real worry about its youth support.

• The DPP rolled out an anniversary web program arguing why young people should still back the party.
• It leaned on polling trends and a social-science age/period/cohort framework to argue youth attitudes track everyone else's, while conceding younger voters like the party notably less.
• The pitch cited falling crime, fewer blackouts, and rising real incomes to counter opposition claims that life in Taiwan has gotten worse.
• Veterans of the Wild Lily protest generation — Tsai Chi-chang and Weng Chang-liang — and Sunflower movement figure Lin Fei-fan framed the party as the vehicle for democracy and Taiwanese sovereignty.
• The core admission: for voters in their twenties, DPP rule is simply the normal state of things, so the question has shifted from blue-versus-green identity to whether the government is doing a good job.

Outlook: With that generational shift working against it, the DPP will have to run on performance rather than history heading into the next election cycle.