Lai Ching-te
Lai Ching-te has been President of Taiwan since May 2024, the third consecutive Democratic Progressive Party president and the first to win with under half the vote. Born in 1959 in a coal-mining village in what is now New Taipei City, he lost his father in a mining accident before he was two and was raised with five siblings by his mother. He trained as a physician, studying at National Taiwan University and taking a master's in public health at Harvard, and worked as a doctor specialising in spinal-cord injuries before entering politics after the 1996 missile crisis, when China fired missiles near Taiwan during its first direct presidential election. He was a legislator from 1999, mayor of Tainan from 2010 to 2017, and premier from 2017 to 2019, where he introduced pension reform for public employees and a labour-law revision that drew protests. He challenged Tsai Ing-wen for the party's nomination in 2019, lost, and became her vice-president in 2020. Beijing regards him as a separatist, and his own past statements gave it the material: he once described himself as a pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence. As president he has kept to the formula that the Republic of China and the People's Republic are not subordinate to each other, and that no declaration is needed because Taiwan is already sovereign. He won in January 2024 with about forty per cent against a split opposition, but the DPP lost its legislative majority, and the opposition parties have used it to cut his budgets and expand parliamentary powers, prompting mass protests. China has increased military activity around the island considerably during his term. He has raised defence spending and extended conscription, while insisting he is maintaining the status quo rather than changing it.
- Lived: 1959 CE – ?
- Nationality: Taiwanese
- Roles: President of Taiwan (2024-present)
