Opinion | The US should rein in Taiwan’s latest presidential hopeful to prevent a cross-strait crisis

With former premier William Lai throwing his hat into Taiwan’s presidential race and espousing a distinctly anti-China agenda, cross-strait ties are heading for turbulence

Reading Time:3 minutes

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen looks on as then premier-designate William Lai speaks during a press conference in Taipei in September 2017. Lai has challenged Tsai for the DPP’s nomination to contest the 2020 presidential election. Photo: CNA

Published: 3:00am, 21 Mar 2019Updated: 5:06am, 21 Mar 2019

On Monday, Taiwan experienced nothing short of a political earthquake. Former premier William Lai Ching-te unexpectedly announced he would seek the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nomination to run in the presidential election in January 2020. This means he will challenge President Tsai Ing-wen, who has declared her intention to seek re-election.

Lai’s pro-independence and anti-China stance makes this an ominous turn in Taiwanese politics. Shortly after taking office as premier in 2017, Lai said: “I am a political worker who advocates Taiwan independence, but I am also a pragmatic pro-Taiwan independence theorist.”

On January 23, soon after stepping down as premier, Lai said he supports a new constitution that reflects a Taiwan-centric national identity, as opposed to the Chinese identity embodied in the current constitution.

Indeed, his public announcement of candidacy was largely an anti-China diatribe. He said he doesn’t want Taiwan to turn into another Hong Kong and Tibet, and reiterated his opposition to China’s interpretation of the 1992 Consensus, according to which both sides of the Taiwan Strait agree to abide by the “one-China principle”.

Lai has therefore delivered the opening salvo in an anti-China-themed election platform. As the DPP relies heavily on public opinion surveys in choosing its candidate for the general election, Lai will almost certainly prevail over Tsai, who suffered a major defeat in the November local elections and has been doing very poorly in public opinion polls.