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Lai Ching-te
★
William Lai,
Taiwan president |
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★ home TW OP tour hospitals restaurants night-markets love personality women speech corruption rotten Taiwan mental-control privacy fraud judiciary police net-army univ foreign-labor death penalty prosecutors pres. Tsai president Lai happiness housing democracy diplomacy prostitutes massage soft power human-rights intl-Human rights judicial-persecution oppression trans-justice microwave-attacks larceny military drugs food buffet wealth culture US-cartoons US-designs Japan-comics Chn-creativity EXPO cartoons-WWII humor political-cartoons CovID fb music movies supermarket ★ |
comment Lai
Ching-te, Taiwan's president
(Lai Ching-te takes up the mantle from his DPP predecessor
Tsai Ing-wen since May 20, 2024.)
(Chinese version)
Taiwan president Lai Ching-te
has not taken defense reform more seriously when China-Taiwan relations
are getting
so tense (TIME, 2025-4-26) |
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◆◆The Diplomat, 2025-4-29 | Taiwan (Lai Ching-te) was not taking defense reform more seriously, and responding to calls for a dramatic increase in defense spending with a less than credible “counteroffer” to make incremental increases. PS: War on the Rocks, 2025-4-16: Taiwan's military remains a profoundly unserious organization. It is not ready to wage war. |
◆ New York Times, 2025-2-25 | Mr. Trump said Taiwan was spending far too little on its military and was too complacent about the United States coming to its rescue in a war |
◆ Bloomberg, 2025-2-14 | Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged to boost military spending to 3% of GDP; Trump suggested the archipelago should devote 10% of GDP to its armed forces. |
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te
provokes Beijing, but is reluctant to reform the reservists and
conscripts system |
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◆◆PBS, 2025-4-7 | On paper, Taiwan's reserves appear large. But these men say military training is insufficient, many young people today are reluctant to join the armed forces. There's also a general lack of awareness among civilians about the importance of national defense. Taiwan's financial systems, energy and communications are vulnerable to Chinese blockade and cyberattack, and critics worry Taiwan isn't doing enough to prepare for social and economic disruption. |
◆◆Foreign Policy, 2025-5-1 | Lai Ching-te gave several speeches that went significantly further than his predecessors in positioning Taiwan as a sovereign state that is separate from China. The Trump administration should rein in Lai before he mistakes Washington's passivity for approval and entangles the United States in a potentially calamitous war |
◆◆TIME, 2025-4-26 | Why China-Taiwan relations are getting so tense? Lai Ching-te's DPP lacks a parliamentary majority, and he can't be sure the Trump Administration has his back. Whatever his political intent, Lai has become more strident on cross-Taiwan Strait questions in recent weeks. |
◆◆New York Times, 2025-4-1 | The problem with president Mr. Lai Ching-te's approach is that Taiwan can no longer bank on U.S. support. This isn't something that we are just now realizing |
◆◆Washington Post, 2025-3-21 | For decades, Taiwanese leaders have performed a delicate dance of not provoking Beijing. President Lai Ching-te is changing that. “We are moving toward conflict escalation with China, that's for sure,” said a professor at National Chengchi University. |
◆◆Associated Press, 2025-3-18 | Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te said that Taiwan law designates mainland China as a “foreign hostile force” |
◆ Brookings, 2025-3-13 | In surveys (2021, 2022), Taiwanese people were asked how likely they are to be willing to fight against an invasion by China on a one-to-five scale. After observing the invasion, more respondents gravitated to extreme options. A research in 2022 indicated that the more Taiwanese citizens believe the United States will assist Taiwan, the higher their willingness to engage in self-defense becomes. Additionally, a 2024 study by Ronan Tse-min Fu and colleagues found that when Taiwanese individuals perceive that Taiwan and U.S. interests align, they are more likely to trust that the United States will provide assistance, thereby strengthening their resolve for self-defense. |
◆ Fox News, 2025-3-2 | most Taiwanese aren't willing to make the sacrifices required for victory in war. Migrant workers serving as essentially mercenaries would only highlight how few of our citizens are willing to fight . Taiwanese expert says: I understand the logic behind the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity, but I fear far too many Taiwanese people – especially younger people – are counting on a rescue from Uncle Sam," |
Lai Ching-te is losing a diplomatic war with China |
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◆ US News, Bloomberg, etc, 2025-4-23 | Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te will not attend the funeral of Pope Francis, despite making requests to the Vatican, a move that breaks with precedent and removes a rare opportunity to mix with other world leaders. Taiwan's then President Ma Ying-jeou led a delegation to the Vatican for Pope Francis' inauguration in 2013, while his predecessor Chen Shui-bian attended Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005. Pope Francis had in recent years worked to improve ties with Beijing that were formally severed in 1951. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-04-23/taiwan-pushing-for-president-to-attend-pope-francis-funeral-senior-official-says;msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-president-to-skip-pope-s-funeral-after-talks-with-vatican/ar-AA1DroE2?ocid=BingNewsVerp |
◆ Lowy Institute (Australia) , 2025-1-29 | nearly three-quarters of countries (74% or 142 in total) now support Beijing's position that Taiwan is part of China.。A growing number of countries support PRC efforts to “achieve national reunification” without any caveat that Beijing's objectives should be pursued peacefully. The widespread adoption of Beijing's stance might constrain US-led deterrence efforts and could provide the PRC with extra licence to escalate military aggression lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/how-much-world-really-backs-beijing-s-claim-taiwan |
Taiwan has already lost its China spy war. |
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◆◆Washington Examiner, 2025-3-25 | Taiwan has already lost its China spy war. Taiwan's defense and security structures are so deeply penetrated by Chinese spies that Beijing knows everything about its plans to deter aggression by the People's Liberation Army, including American defense and intelligence secrets. At this point, any secrets Washington shares with our Taiwanese partners stand a high chance of winding up in Chinese Communist hands.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/3357074/taiwan-has-already-lost-its-china-spy-war |
◆◆Washington Post, 2025-3-28 | Taiwanese soldiers guarding president Lai Ching-te's office were spying for China. This shows how severe China's infiltration is in Taiwan; Taiwan's sentencing on espionage activities has been too lenient. It is now even more uncertain whether Washington would come to Taiwan's aid. Taipei's latest crackdown on espionage helps show Washington that Taiwan is serious about plugging leaks |
◆◆New York Times, 2025-4-1 | Chinese land, navy, air and missile forces would “approach close” to Taiwan and practice “seizure of overall control, etc. The exercises appeared intended to intimidate Taiwan, without tipping over into a wider confrontation or crisis. They likely want to persuade the Trump administration that Lai Ching-te is a troublemaker and to deter the U.S. from maintaining high levels of support to Taiwan. |
◆◆Washington Post, 2025-4-1 | China targets Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te with military drills and personal attacks. Taiwanese expert: "we should call it a pre-invasion operation.” By specifically targeting Taiwan and blaming Lai, China is engaging in “cognitive warfare” that is gradually making Taiwanese numb to the real threats they face. The gradual ratcheting up of activity in frequency and complexity raises the possibility that “drills could escalate into actual conflict”. |
◆◆Reuters, 2021-12-20 | The repeated cases of the most senior level of Taiwan armed forces officers being convicted of espionage...Beijing has even penetrated the security detail assigned to protect Taiwan's President. Well-placed spies in the ranks of the Taiwan military could offer a priceless advantage to China if the two sides plunge into open conflict, according to Taiwanese and U.S. military analysts. |
Taiwan president Lai's Tougher Stance on China |
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◆◆Washington Post, 2025-3-31 | Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has also adopted a harder line toward China and moved to crack down more on Chinese espionage in what analysts say is an effort to appeal to China hawks in the Trump administration. |
◆◆New York Times, 2025-3-23 | Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's Gambit: He laid out 17 steps, including restoring military courts to try Taiwanese military personnel accused of espionage and other security crimes. He wants to more closely monitor Taiwanese people's contacts with China ... Nationalist politicians argue that reinstating military courts is backsliding. “Many of these 17 steps restrict people's civil rights”, "unfairly casting his domestic critics as 'red' tools of Beijing". Brookings Ryan Hass said Lai appeared partly intended to sharpen the contrast with the opposition, "...it was intended to reassert control of the narrative, to put people who are opposing his agenda on the back foot”. nytimes.com/2025/03/23/world/asia/taiwan-china-trump.html |
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◆ USA Today (2025-4-4): when Trump announced tariffs, The White House listed Taiwan as a country, which it's not. Taiwanese officials on Thursday didn't appear to know what to make of Taiwan being designated a country. | |
◆ United Daily 聯合報 (2025-4-8): President Lai Ching-te says unification (reunification with mainland China) is not a freedom of speech (賴清德說消滅中華民國非言論自由)。 | ◆ Reuters (2025-4-8): President Lai Ching-te says "only Taiwan's people can decide their future". |
◆ United
Daily
聯合報 (2025-5-3) |
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◆ 中時 China Times (2025-3-28): The situation in Taiwan today is actually similar to yesterday's Nazi. The ruling party DPP has labeled the opposition and dissidents as "co-operators or collaborators" (同路人) of the Chinese Communist Party, and has used the state machine to carry out a fierce (凶狠) crackdown, creating a fanatical "anti-China, protect Taiwan" public-opinion atmosphere in an attempt to intimidate those not to question or criticize the ruler. A silent society without dissents hence will be created. (Chinese: 當年納粹整肅異己,整個社會在事不關己的袖手旁觀下,最終集體落入獨裁者的鐵掌。台灣今天的局勢,其實異曲同工。民進黨把在野黨和異議者都扣上中共同路人的紅帽子,動用國家機器進行凶狠的整肅,塑造狂熱的「抗中保台」輿論氛圍,意圖恫嚇不得質疑批判。一個寒蟬靜默的一言堂社會就此完成。) | |
◆ 中時 China Times (2025-3-27): Recently 75 Taiwanese scholars issued a statement ─ warning that "thoughts censorship has come to Taiwan" and "the space for freedom of speech is rapidly being compressed." (中研院院士等75位學者發表聲明,最令人觸目驚心的是警示「思想審查已經降臨台灣」、「言論自由的空間快速遭到壓縮」。近日指稱3位陸配主張武統,但法院等並未舉出哪一句話,只是依據「前後脈絡」及「社會通念」判定有如是主張,於是驅逐出境我們擔心這種推斷方式可能擴大,適用在一般民眾身上chinatimes.com/opinion/20250327004086-262101?chdtv | |
◆ Council on Foreign Relations, 2024-9-3: Ko Wen-je (Founder and Chair of TPP, the third largest political party,)──accuses the government of attempting to “suppress” its opponents and the press and judiciary of “being the government’s political tools.” |
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◆ The Liberty Times (2025-3-11, 自由時報) says president Lai stressed that the government will accelerate the declassifying of political archives about persecutions, investigate the truth, and avoid the state machine from hurting people again... | |
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The ruling party (DPP)
's official website wrote not long ago that persecutions by the power
occur any time and anywhere (see pic. below).
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◆ It's within reason to doubt if Lai really cares human rights issues, because, during the long period of his tenure as president (2024~) and vice president (2020~2024), president Lai Ching-te has not done anything major on persecution cases occurred in the past around 40 years till present, which might lead to more victims suffering more. Lai probably cares more about 228 incident in 1947, or similar ones - which would be helpful for DPP's future election, however those prime suspects were dead already. |
◆ Brookings, 2025-2-25: Lai has placed a major bet on embedding Taiwan within a global network of democracies as a bulwark against rising China's pressure... But the island has to play a balancing act. For the security of its people, the government cannot be too adventurous.◆ Brookings, 2025-2-12: One point of consensus across party lines in Taiwan is that now would be an inopportune time for Lai to push boundaries or poke Beijing on cross-Strait issues. The opposition KMT accuses Lai of pursuing an imperial presidency; Lai is unwilling to engage in the normal give-and-take of democratic politics in a divided government. Instead, , Lai is trying to consolidate political control in his own hands and doing so in ways that betray stubbornness, arrogance, and inflexibility. brookings.edu/articles/taiwan-president-lais-three-big-challenges-in-2025/
◆ Reuters, 2025-2-3: Taiwan and China need to talk to each other to achieve peace given the "multifold changes" in the international situation, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te said ◆ East Asia Forum, 2025-2-6: Lai Ching-te's administration faces mounting pressure amid Beijing’s military intimidation and a shifting US stance under the Trump presidency. Taiwan's political future hinges on carefully navigating domestic discord, cross-strait relations and international power plays. ◆ CNN, 2025-1-25: “If there is not enough budget to consistently improve Taiwan's defense reforms and capabilities, the international community will doubt Taiwan's determination to defend ourselves,” Lai Ching-te said ◆ Bloomberg, 2025-1-23: Taiwan's ruling party is asking the highest court to pause and potentially throw out legislation that may limit the judiciary's ability to function, a move that could give President Lai Ching-te a big win in his battles with the opposition over issues including the budget and defense spending to deter China.◆ Reuters, 2025-1-17: Taiwan's top China official says Beijing must stop shunning Lai; Taiwan's government "will not tolerate" Beijing's active engagement solely with opposition politicians while it refuses dialogue with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's democratically elected administration, the Nikkei newspaper reported ◆ The Hill, 2025-1-16 : Former Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Taiwan; Pence wrote an op-ed in August for The Washington Post in which he warned a “new and troubling strain of isolationism is emerging within the Republican Party that advocates turning our backs on Taiwan and other allies.”
pic.: pic.: "comment Lai Ching-te" (Chinese version) ranks No.1 on Microsoft Bing, 2025-4-26, 2024-12-31, 2024-10-1, 2024-8-8, 2023-8-8
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former presidential candidate Ko and his supports accused a political vendetta |
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◆ Washington Post, 2025-1-17 |
With Ko's indictment, the KMT and TPP are accusing Lai of abusing
his powers to politically influence the judiciary.
Opposition supporters have been holding large-scale demonstrations in
recent weeks.
Ko denies the charges, which his
supporters say are politically motivated. “It's political persecution",
"an end to “DPP tyranny”. In last year's presidential election, Ko with his party's strong performance key to why Lai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its legislative majority. msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-may-cut-its-defense-budget-just-as-trump-returns/ar-AA1xmU6y?ocid=BingNewsVerp |
◆ New York Times, 2024-12-26 | Ko has denied the charges and said that he was the victim of a political vendetta mounted by Mr. Lai's government...thousands of supporters gathered in protests, arguing that the allegations were flimsy and politically motivated, and that seemingly corrupt politicians from Mr. Lai's DPParty had been spared investigations. “What's important to keep in mind is that the sort of political force that he awakened in Taiwan is not going to go away,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at NCCU. nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/asia/taiwan-presidential-candidate-indicted.html |
◆ Bloomberg, 2024-12-26 | The Taiwan People's Party (founded by Ko) denounced the indictment in a press briefing : “Today, Taiwan is experiencing judicial injustice, with politics and state machinery being used to persecute political opponents,” The indictment “lacks financial evidence and concrete proof, relying solely on pieced-together claims to destroy political adversaries.” |
◆ BBC, 2024-12-26 | A dark horse in presidential election, Ko won votes not far behind ruling party candidate Lai Ching-te's 40%; His sizable showing pointed to voters' demand for a more pluralistic political landscape beyond the two main parties. Ko was expected to seek the presidency again in 2028. His allies and supporters accused the DPP of using the charges to suppress its opponents. |
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