This is an investiture that does not please Beijing at all. Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te was sworn in on Monday, succeeding Tsai Ing-wen whose eight years in office were marked by a deterioration in relations with China.
Lai Ching-te took her oath of office at the presidential palace in Taipei, as did the new vice-president, Hsiao Bi-khim.
A defender of the “status quo”
Coming from the Progressive Democratic Party (DPP), the same movement as his predecessor, he has described himself in the past as a “pragmatic architect of Taiwan’s independence”. He has since softened his speech, defending the maintenance of the “status quo” and now affirming that an independence process is not necessary because the island de facto has this status, according to him.
His outspokenness and his posture attract, unsurprisingly, the ire of Beijing, which has described him as a “dangerous separatist” leading Taiwan on the path “to war and decline”. Lai Ching-te wants to try to reopen dialogue with China, which Beijing broke off in 2016, but experts believe he risks being rebuffed.
Among the 51 international delegations invited to the inauguration – including the United States, Japan and Canada – eight heads of state were invited to show their support. But the island suffers above all from a lack of diplomatic recognition, having only 12 allies on the international scene. Taiwan, however, has its own institutions, an army and a currency. The majority of the 23 million inhabitants also believe they have their own Taiwanese identity, distinct from China.
In his inauguration speech, the new president called on Beijing to “stop its political and military intimidation” and thanked the Taiwanese for having resisted the influence “of external forces”. He also stressed the importance of strengthening the country’s defense “in the face of numerous threats and infiltration attempts.”
Censorship in China
Before taking office, the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, which manages issues related to the Strait, had once again shown its dissatisfaction by declaring that “Taiwan independence and peace across the Strait” are “like the water and fire. And this Monday, the social network Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of the X platform, blocked hashtags linked to Lai Ching-te, preventing him from becoming trendy on the social network on the day of his inauguration. Hashtags with his name and that of Tsai Ing-wen were also blocked.
Weibo regularly blocks hashtags considered politically sensitive to prevent them from becoming trendy on this platform used by hundreds of millions of people in China. During the Taiwanese presidential election in January, the network blocked a voting hashtag which was one of the most popular at the time.