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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and vice-presidential candidate William Lai campaign in Taipei on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

William Lai tipped to be DPP’s presidential candidate after Tsai Ing-wen’s Taiwan poll victory

  • Analysts say Tsai’s running mate and former bitter rival had party’s support clinched before Saturday’s election victory
  • A reputation as a capable administrator and willingness to mend fences with Tsai have paved the way for Lai to become DPP standard-bearer four years from now
Taiwan

Taiwan’s vice-president-elect William Lai Ching-te has been tipped to be the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate four years from now following Tsai Ing-wen’s election victory on Saturday.

Seven months ago, Lai was a bitter opponent of Tsai, seeking to replace her as the self-governed island’s leader by winning the ruling DPP’s presidential primary races.

But Lai, a 60-year-old political star who almost sparked infighting within the DPP, is now in political wedlock with Tsai, after accepting the president’s invitation in November to be her running mate.

Together, the pair defeated the mainland-friendly Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu of the opposition Kuomintang, in the crucial elections watched closely by Washington and Beijing.

William Lai once sought to replace Tsai Ing-wen by contesting the pro-independence DPP’s presidential primaries. Now he is her running mate. Photo: EPA-EFE

“We are comrades within the party, and she is not my enemy or adversary,” Lai said of Tsai when he finally announced on November 17 that he would become the president’s running mate after losing to her in a June DPP primary he had denounced as rigged to help Tsai secure the nomination.

“Together we have fought many battles and experienced hardships … and now Taiwan needs us, and I will do my best [to help Tsai] in fighting this election,” Lai said.

Lai, a self-proclaimed “pragmatic Taiwan independence worker”, had strong support from the hardline pro-independence camp as he took on Tsai in the June primary, slamming her over what he viewed as her failure to bring hope to the island because she was too mild in dealing with the mainland.

In addition to viewing Tsai as being too moderate with Beijing, hardliners had criticised the president’s efforts to maintain the cross-strait status quo, saying it deviated from the DPP’s pro-independence platform.

Tsai’s critics had even demanded that she make way for Lai – who had consistently been ranked as Taiwan’s most effective mayor during his eight years as head of the southern city of Tainan – to run for president.

“In the face of persistent Chinese threats, it is our most important mission to unite and defend Taiwan,” Lai said at the time.

Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province to be brought back into the fold, if necessary by force. It has suspended official exchanges with the island, staged a series of war games close by and poached seven of its allies since Tsai was first elected president in 2016 and refused to affirm the “one-China” principle.

Taiwan election rivals make final pitch to voters

Since joining Tsai in the election campaign in November, Lai has stood by what he said – a united DPP to fight against Beijing and the opposition KMT, which Beijing reportedly favoured because of its mainland-friendly stance.

“We are facing unprecedented threats from China, whose leader Xi Jinping has already determined to nullify the Republic of China status by declaring to use the one-China principle and ‘one country, two systems’ to force us to hand over our sovereignty to China,” Lai said at a Wednesday rally in the northern county of Miaoli.

Analysts said that even if Tsai had lost, Lai was assured of being the DPP’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

“Given his seniority, his reputation as a capable administrator and his willingness to mend fences with Tsai despite his defeat in the primaries, he should be the DPP’s next candidate for the 2024 poll,” said Yan Jiann-fa, vice-president of the government-funded Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

Lee Zhenguang, deputy director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, said mutual self-interest was driving Lai and Tsai’s union.

Chinese university deletes study forecasting win for Tsai in Taiwan poll

“While Tsai needs Lai to consolidate the support from the hardline camp, Lai is looking for the 2024 candidacy. Both have their own political calculations,” he said.

“Lai has insisted that he is a so-called pragmatic independence worker. If the pair win the weekend’s race, it will help boost the hardline camp’s pro-independence force, which might escalate the cross-strait tension in the next four years.”

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