Taiwan’s new President William Lai was sworn in on Monday (May 20). NUS political scientist Chong Ja Ian looks at how he will handle ties with China.
Taiwan ’s new President William Lai was sworn in on Monday . NUS political scientist Chong Ja Ian looks at how he will handle ties with China .
As Ms Tsai’s vice-president for the past four years, Mr Lai is looking to take advantage of the existing momentum. Stability, especially in relations with China, is a big component of the legacy Mr Lai inherits, and his speech spelt out a clear intention to maintain the status quo. The supposed consensus - an unofficial understanding that Taipei and Beijing agree there is only"one China", but the two sides may disagree as to its meaning - was formally adopted as policy by the Kuomintang’s Ma Ying-jeou when he secured the presidency in 2008. Beijing has never acknowledged Mr Ma’s framing of the"1992 Consensus" in terms of"one country, different interpretations".
Across multiple opinion polls, roughly 90 percent of respondents see themselves as Taiwanese in some way with about two-thirds exclusively so. Concurrently, more than 85 per cent of people in Taiwan consistently express a wish to maintain the status quo whatever their aspirations for Taiwan’s ultimate status. The most recent poll by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council puts this figure at 88.8 per cent.
A divided government is probably Mr Lai’s first major challenge. Efforts by the KMT and TPP to railroad through an expansive"contempt of the legislature" Bill alongside a massive road construction Bill already led to confrontations in the Legislative Yuan the Friday before the inauguration.
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