Lai Ching-te will assume office as Taiwan’s president on Monday, facing significant challenges both from China, which labels him a “dangerous separatist,” and from a divided parliament at home with no party holding a majority. Lai, who has served as vice president for the past four years, takes over from President Tsai Ing-wen amidst increasing Chinese military and political pressure aimed at asserting sovereignty over Taiwan—a claim both Lai and Tsai reject.
In the lead-up to Lai’s election victory in January, Beijing repeatedly condemned him as a proponent of Taiwan’s formal independence, framing the election as a choice between war and peace. China has warned that any move by Taiwan to declare formal independence would justify an attack on the island. Meanwhile, the government in Taipei maintains that Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China, and has no plans to change this status. The Republic of China’s government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 following its defeat by Mao Zedong’s communists in the Chinese civil war.
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Lai, 64, who is widely known by his English name William, has frequently extended offers for dialogue with China, including this week, but Beijing has consistently rejected these overtures. Lai insists that only the people of Taiwan can determine their future. Beijing will closely monitor Lai’s inaugural address, which he will deliver at the presidential office in central Taipei, a building from the Japanese colonial era. Lai, a trained doctor and son of a coal miner, aims to convey that Taiwan seeks peace and is not a “troublemaker,” according to Puma Shen, a lawmaker from Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who serves on parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.
However, Shen notes that China is likely to reject message of Lai Ching-te regardless of its content. On Wednesday, when asked about Lai’s upcoming speech and China’s potential response, the spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Chen Binhua, emphasized that the “Taiwan region’s new leader” must choose between peaceful development and confrontation. Chen asserted that “Taiwan independence is incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait.”