Taiwan ruling party’s Lai wins presidential election

Taiwan’s ruling party candidate Lai Ching-te on Saturday, January 13, won the island’s presidential election, a vote watched closely from Beijing to Washington. Lai delivered an unprecedented third consecutive term for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after a raucous campaign in which he pitched himself as the defender of Taiwan’s democratic way of life.

Lai vowed to defend the self-ruled island from Chinese “intimidation.” “We are determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China,” he said in his victory speech, while also pledging to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Fighting nationalism with nationalism. Hopefully they are able to maintain independence but somehow I’d suggest China’s imperialist force is pretty hard to reckon with.