In January, William Lai won the election in Taiwan to become the country’s next president. As I described at the time, China was clearly not happy about this, fearing that Lai was more willing to openly push for independence than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen. Before the election China had not-so-subtly warned that any move toward independence was a move toward war.
But while the threats may have worried some voters, they weren’t enough to stop Lai from winning. For his part, he promised to maintain the status quo and not to do anything that would give China grounds for a military response.
Today, Lai was inaugurated and true to his word he didn’t say anything too dramatic, but he did say that democracy in Taiwan was non-negotiable
Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te urged China to stop its hostile political and military threats against the island and work toward regional…
