Taiwan’s New President Sworn Into Office
Lai Ching-te, the winner of Taiwan’s January 13 presidential elections, took office on Monday. His pro-freedom stance infuriates Chinese Communist Party leaders. His inauguration could bring regional tensions to their highest since the 1940s.
Beliefs: Lai is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (dpp), Taiwan’s most pro-freedom and anti-China party. Before becoming Taiwan’s vice president in 2020, Lai described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence.” Although he described his cross-Strait policy as “an affinity toward China while loving Taiwan,” he also said, “I will never change this [pro-independence] stance, no matter what office I hold.”
Lai’s election shows that the Taiwanese overwhelmingly do not wish to raise the white flag to the Chinese Communist Party (ccp). Yet the majority of Taiwanese do not, at present, want official independence. The majority prefer to maintain the “one-China policy,” in which Taiwan is not officially independent but still has full political and economic autonomy.
Because of this majority view, Lai has sometimes tempered his pro-independence rhetoric. In 2014, he said: “Although Taiwan independence is the dpp’s stance, procedurally, it fully respects the will of the Taiwanese people.”
As part of his drive to protect Taiwan from a Chinese military takeover, Lai plans to increase defense spending while drawing closer to the nation’s top ally, the United States.
China: Since Taiwan fled from ccp forces in 1949, Beijing has vowed to take the island. Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping views Taiwan’s fall as “a historical inevitability.” China views Lai as a dangerous separatist since he does not wish to surrender to the authoritarians in Beijing.
Lai will likely be less appeasing to China than his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, whose 2016 inauguration caused China to cut off diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Before January, some Chinese leaders deemed Taiwan’s elections “a choice between war and peace.” Strategist David Roche said Lai’s victory put Taiwan “on a collision course with China.”
Inauguration: At his inauguration, Lai called on China to “choose dialogue over confrontation,” asking the ccp “to cease their political and military intimidation against Taiwan, share with Taiwan the global responsibility of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait as well as the greater region, and ensure the world is free from the fear of war.”
China’s government has not yet issued a statement concerning the inauguration.
The future: The Bible reveals that a major alliance of Asian nations is rising today, with Russia and China at the helm. Based on these prophecies and related passages about the weak will of America to stand up for its allies, the Trumpet has warned for decades that China will take Taiwan.
Learn more: Read “Taiwan Betrayal,” by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.
