Update
Lai ahead with 40 percent
Candidate critical of China clearly wins Taiwan election
January 13, 2024, 1:37 p.m
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The election in Taiwan is not just about a new president, but also about future dealings with China. According to initial projections, the island state is likely to further distance itself from Beijing. Because the China-critical candidate William Lai wins a clear victory.
Vice President and independence supporter Lai Ching-te has won the presidential election in Taiwan. The 64-year-old politician from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) received 40.2 percent of the votes, as the electoral commission announced on Saturday after counting 98 percent of the votes. His main opponent, Hou Yu-ih from the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT), received 33.4 percent and conceded defeat. Hou said in Taipei: “I have failed you all.”
At the same time, the 19.5 million voters who were called will decide on the new parliament, the Legislative Yuan, in which the DPP previously had an absolute majority. An official election result is expected late Saturday evening. If the Progressive Party wins, it would be its third consecutive presidential election victory. The current President Tsai Ing-wen is not allowed to run again after two terms in office.
If the DPP becomes president again, China’s communist leadership is likely to continue the pressure on Taiwan. Beijing counts the island republic as part of China, although Taiwan has had an independent and democratically elected government for decades. Beijing, which views the pro-Taiwan independence DPP as separatist, had frozen contact with Taipei since President Tsai took office in 2016.
In the strait between China and Taiwan, which is important for global shipping, where the Chinese military sends fighter jets towards the island republic almost every day as a show of force, tensions could therefore continue or even increase. China wants a “reunification” of the island with the mainland, if necessary with military force.