Democratic Progressive Get together (DPP) supporters await the announcement of official outcomes at a rally on January 13, 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Annabelle Chih Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
TAIPEI – Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Get together received an unprecedented third straight presidential time period as incoming chief Lai Ching-te vowed to stay open-minded in her method to governance, whereas pledging to construct consensus in a divided legislature.
The results of Saturday's presidential election is prone to upset Beijing, which has repeatedly labeled Lai a “cussed Taiwan independence employee” and a harmful separatist. There are additionally fears that this might in flip have an effect on frosty China-US relations and safety within the wider Indo-Pacific area, with China escalating navy exercise within the Taiwan Strait and different close by waters.
“As president, I’ve an necessary accountability to keep up peace and stability within the Taiwan Strait,” Lai mentioned at a information convention, in an official celebration translation of his feedback in Mandarin.
“I’ll act in accordance with our democratic and free constitutional order, in a manner that’s balanced and maintains the established order throughout the Straits,” he added. “Below the ideas of dignity and equality, we are going to use exchanges to exchange obstructionism, dialogue to exchange confrontation, and confidently current exchanges and cooperation with China.”
The Chinese language Communist Get together has refused to interact with outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen since she assumed workplace in 2016. The DPP has not accepted the so-called “1992 Consensus”, disputing the tacit settlement for “one China” between the then KMT. authorities officers and the Chinese language Communist Get together, which Beijing assumes as the idea for cross-Strait engagement.
DPP's Lai – Taiwan's present vp – received greater than 40% of the favored vote in Taiwan's eighth presidential election. DPP is the primary celebration to win the presidential workplace thrice in a row since direct presidential elections had been launched in 1996. Beijing had framed the election as a selection between “peace and warfare, prosperity and decline” .
The Kuomintang or KMT, Beijing's most well-liked political associate, received about 33% of the vote with Hou You-yi on the high of its ticket. Ko Wen-je – the witty and outspoken former mayor of Taipei, who ran beneath the banner of the Taiwan Folks's Get together that was solely shaped in 2019 – obtained simply over 26% of the vote.
Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te (L) gestures subsequent to his working mate Hsiao Bi-khim throughout a rally exterior the headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Get together (DPP) in Taipei on January 13, 2024. after profitable the presidential election.
Yasuyoshi Chiba AFP | Getty Photographs
The result of the race to manage Taiwan's 113-seat legislature is far much less clear. Taiwan's new authorities may also have its fingers full, with voters largely involved about bread-and-butter points, significantly stagnant wages at a time of escalating rents and home costs which might be had been aggravated by excessive inflation.
Voter turnout
Voter turnout gave the impression to be the second weakest since direct presidential elections in Taiwan in 1996. This 12 months, 71.9% of all eligible voters forged ballots within the presidential election, in line with preliminary information from the Central Election Fee of Taiwan.
China has by no means given up its declare on Taiwan – which was self-governed by the Chinese language Nationalist Get together, or Kuomintang, who fled to the island after its defeat within the Chinese language civil warfare in 1949.
Chinese language President Xi Jinping considers reunification with the mainland “a historic inevitability.” Xi informed his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' summit in November that Taiwan has at all times been the “most necessary and delicate” concern in China-US relations.
Biden has vowed to defend Taiwan within the occasion of an invasion by China, a place that has angered Beijing.
Former US Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, changing into the highest-ranking US official to go to the island in additional than 20 years. His journey was one of many causes that communication between the world's two most important powers stopped earlier than a tentative resumption simply months in the past.
