Taiwan’s New Leader Says He’ll Stick to Status Quo
TAINAN, Taiwan—More than a decade ago, some residents of this southern Taiwanese city got a lesson in the character of the man who is now set to be Taiwan’s next president. Lai Ching-te, then Tainan’s mayor, wanted to move a section of railway underground. Residents whose homes would have to be demolished blocked bulldozers with their bodies and accused him of selling them out to property developers.
Political opponents called him a dictator. Lai was undeterred, telling city officials the project was crucial for the city’s future. “If he believes something is right, he’s all in," said Hsiao Po-jen, one of Lai’s cabinet officials at the time.
Even that means he has to “bear heavy responsibility and endure humiliation." Lai’s resolve—or stubbornness, as his critics call it—has taken on outsize significance since the 64-year-old emerged victorious from Taiwan’s unpredictable three-way presidential election on Saturday with 40% of the vote. Though he will lead an island of only around 24 million people, many of the decisions he makes in Taipei will have the potential to make waves in other capitals, Beijing and Washington in particular. The ascent of Lai, currently serving as Taiwan’s vice president, to the island’s top job makes both Chinese and American officials nervous.
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of China, sees him as a staunch advocate of independence—a red line for Communist Party leaders. The White House worries Lai is more likely than Taiwan’s departing president, Tsai Ing-wen, to provoke Beijing with envelope-pushing rhetoric and draw the U.S. into a dangerous confrontation, according to U.S.
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