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Can DPP’s William Lai turn a paler shade of green to win Taiwanese presidency?
- Ruling party candidate is moderating his pro-independence stance in a bid to reassure Beijing and Washington, analysts said
- William Lai Ching-te is expected to retain Tsai Ing-wen’s policies if he wins the presidential election race in January
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Amber Wangin Beijing
Taiwanese voters will head to the polls in January in what is seen as a crucial election for both the self-ruled island and US-China relations. In this three-part series the Post looks at the 2024 presidential race, starting with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and its candidate William Lai Ching-te.
Months after Xi Jinping was named Chinese president in 2013, the mayor of Taiwan’s oldest city publicly appealed to him to become “Mr Democracy”, saying only a democratic mainland could resolve the decades-old stand-off across the Taiwan Strait.
Ten years later, that former mayor of Tainan William Lai Ching-te has become the main character in his democracy narrative, as the confirmed presidential candidate for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in next year’s elections.
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Lai, the self-ruled island’s vice-president, launched his campaign on April 12, describing the poll as a race of “democracy vs authoritarianism”. With the opposition struggling to find a candidate to match his weight, Lai has an early lead.
A survey released by the DPP-leaning Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation on April 18 put Lai’s approval rating at 33.4 per cent, with the opposition KMT’s best-known potential challenger on 29.7 per cent.
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If he wins in January, Lai is expected to retain the incumbent Tsai Ing-wen’s policies towards Beijing and Washington, a prospect that could increase the risks of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, experts believe.
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