Taiwan ruling party’s Lai wins key election
● Lai Ching-te, the presidential candidate for Taiwan’s ruling party, won an election yesterday that China had framed as a choice between war and peace. Hou Yu-ih, candidate for the main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), conceded defeat.
Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which champions Taiwan’s separate identity and rejects China’s territorial claims, was seeking a third term, unprecedented under Taiwan’s electoral system.
Lai was facing two opponents for the presidency — the KMT’s Hou and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je of the small Taiwan People’s Party, founded in 2019.
Speaking to reporters in the southern city of Tainan before voting, Lai encouraged people to cast their ballots. “Every vote is valued, as this is Taiwan’s hard-earned democracy,” he said in brief remarks.
In the run-up to the election, China repeatedly denounced Lai as a dangerous separatist and rebuffed his repeated calls for talks. Lai says he is committed to preserving peace across the Taiwan Strait and boosting the island’s defences.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said yesterday it had again spotted Chinese balloons crossing the sensitive strait, one of which flew over Taiwan itself. The ministry has denounced the spate of balloons reported over the strait in the past month as psychological warfare and a threat to aviation safety.
“Nobody wants war,” said Jennifer Lu, 36, a businesswoman who was playing on a grass lawn with her daughter after casting her ballot on a sunny morning in Taipei’s Songshan district.
Hou wants to restart engagement, beginning with people-to-people exchanges, and has, like China, accused Lai of supporting Taiwan’s formal independence. Lai says Hou is pro-Beijing, which Hou rejects.
Ko has won a passionate support base, especially among young voters, for focusing on bread-and-butter issues such as the high cost of housing. He also wants to re-engage with China, but insists that this cannot come at the expense of protecting Taiwan’s democracy and way of life.
The parliamentary elections are equally important, especially if no party wins an outright majority, potentially hindering the new president’s ability to pass legislation and spending, especially for defence.
“Compared to previous elections, the result this time [was] very difficult to predict,” said Liao Jeng-wen, 44, a financial sector worker. “Taiwan’s next leader should think of ways to peacefully get along with China ... Many Taiwanese think we should maintain the status quo.”
President Tsai Ing-wen was barred from standing after two terms in office. — Reuters