Taiwan ruling party’s Lai Ching-te wins presidential election

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, only founded in 2019.

On Friday, the poll campaigns came to an end, after a bout of stirring speeches. Speaking in his hometown of Tainan in the island’s south, Lai reflected on why he left his career as a surgeon because of China’s missile tests and military exercises. “I wanted to protect the democracy that had just gotten underway in Taiwan. I gave up my well-paid job and decided to follow the footsteps of our elders in democracy,” Lai said, quoted AP.

However, Hou, a former head of Taiwan’s police force and mayor of the capital’s suburbs, indicated that Lai’s commitment to the island’s sovereignty and his relations with China could bring about uncertainty and friction with China, even to the degree of a war between the two governments.

Meanwhile, the US has pledged support for the government that emerges, reinforced by the Biden administration’s plans to send an unofficial delegation to the island after the election, reported AP. The move, however, could endanger relations between the US and Beijing.

Blinken meets Chinese and Japanese diplomats, seeks stability

In backdrop of this, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait during a meeting with a senior Chinese diplomat on Friday. The leader sat down with Liu Jianchao, the Chinese Communist Party’s international minister. Hours later, he met with Yoko Kamikawa, the foreign minister of Japan, one of the United States’ strongest allies in Asia.

In addition to Taiwan, Blinken and Kamikawa discussed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and preparation for a state visit by Japan’s prime minister to the US, possibly in early March, according to the news site Japan Today. Blinken told Kamikawa that the alliance is “truly the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” according to a State Department transcript.

Apart from China tensions, the Taiwan election largely hinges on domestic issues such as dwindling economic growth, and longer-term challenges such as housing affordability, a yawning gap between rich and poor, and unemployment are especially prominent.

— With AP and Reuters inputs