‘Political worker’ to lead DPP
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s ruling party has chosen Vice President William Lai as its next chairman, putting the selfdescribed “political worker for Taiwanese independence” in line to be a top challenger in the next presidential election.
Mr Lai won 99.65% of the total vote in an uncontested election, the Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement, securing the position that Tsai Ing-wen used as a springboard to the presidency.
Ms Tsai is due to step down as president next year due to term limits, prompting key figures in the DPP and opposition Kuomintang to begin jockeying for the right to replace her.
The “political worker” line that Mr Lai has used in recent years is the type of rhetoric that angers Beijing, whose officials frequently lash out at the DPP for its “collusion” with the US, Taiwan’s main military supporter.
Like Ms Tsai, the 63-year-old Lai has stated that Taiwan is already a de facto sovereign nation and therefore does not need to declare independence. That stance is aimed at allaying US fears that he might actually declare independence, a move that would likely cause China to respond militarily.
China under President Xi Jinping has stepped up its economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan, largely because Ms Tsai rejects the “one country, two systems” governance model Beijing proposes.
Beijing nearly doubled the number of incursions that its warplanes made into sensitive areas near Taiwan last year. In August, it held unprecedented military exercises after Ms Tsai met ex-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, drills that included sending missiles over the island.
The Biden administration has ramped up its military support for Taiwan. US lawmakers last month agreed to a spending bill that included US$2 billion (66 billion baht) in weapons funding for Taiwan and as much as $10 billion through 2027.
The US and Taiwan are also trying to forge closer economic links. Officials from the two sides are meeting in Taipei until today in their latest round of discussions on issues such as trade facilitation and regulatory practices.
Mr Lai is a medical doctor-turnedpolitician who was mayor of the southern city of Tainan from 2010 to 2017.
Mr Lai wrote on Sunday on Facebook that his goal is “to unite the whole party and lead everyone to remake its image as an honest, diligent and grassroots party that guarantees quality of governance”.
The DPP post was open because Ms Tsai stepped down as its head after defeat in local elections in November.