Lai Ching-te officially takes office
Helen Davidson
Outside the president’s office, where the crowd is watching this part of the ceremony on a large screen, there is a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd as Lai is formally declared president of the Republic of China.
Key events
What is Taiwan’s relationship with the US?
Speaking of baseball, what are US-Taiwan relations like at the moment.
In 2022, the then US house speaker and Democratic party member Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in a trip the Council on Foreign Relations described as heightening tensions between China and the US.
Nancy Pelosi even met with the then president Tsai Ing-wen, with Foreign Policy saying Beijing strongly condemned the visit, reacting by planning military exercises and banning some food imports.
Less than a year later – the then US house speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Tsai Ing-wen in the US, in a visit that also angered China.
This is what the US state department says:
Though the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, we have a robust unofficial relationship. The United States and Taiwan share similar values, deep commercial and economic links, and strong people-to-people ties, which form the bedrock of our friendship and serve as the impetus for expanding US engagement with Taiwan.
The state department goes on to say that the US has a “longstanding one China policy”, and that it “opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side”.
… We do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.
Thinktank the Council on Foreign Relations says that Beijing has repeatedly urged Washington to stop selling defence equipment to Taiwan and to cease its contact with Taipei.
The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin explain the metal:
Taiwan has a very big metal scene. The Indigenous music is from one of Taiwan’s 16 Aboriginal tribes.
Baseball is also hugely important in Taiwan. Early in the pandemic, when the world was largely shut down, Taiwan’s baseball league was the only professional sport still playing in the whole world.
As a dragon danced around a very large inflatable planet, the announce emphasised Taiwan’s importance to the world.
We’re about to see a performance by dancers known for, the celebration MCs say, “Taking their bodies to the limit to represent the limitless possibilities of the streets,” with Hip Hop and breakdancing which, the announcers point out, will be an Olympic sport this year.
The performance has so far featured traditional costumes, baseball players, dancers wearing butterfly sarongs, what appears to be heavy metal music, and very long dragons on sticks, tunnelling and twisting impressively.
The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin report: the dragons represent the four Asian dragons – the four countries in Asia which have had huge economic growth since the 1960s: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong Kong.
Apologies, we have just learned that outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen will not be making an address after all. We’ll continue to bring you updates and analysis in the meantime. Lai Ching-te will be speaking at 11.10 local time, or in just over an hour.
Stay tuned for details on the meanings behind tonight’s state banquet, more on Tsai’s legacy, and performances from the National Nantou Senior High School and JingMei Tug-of-War teams.
Back now to tensions between Taiwan and China. Taiwan has also been making some military moves.
Foreign Policy recently reported that Taiwan is looking to buy weaponry known as “suicide drones” from the US, in a sign it says that the territory is bowing to a US push to acquire munitions that could ward off a Chinese invasion.
Reuters has also reported that the US and Taiwan navies conducted joint drills in the Pacific in April that, officially, did not take place. Four people briefed on the matter told Reuters the drills had taken place as the two militaries boost cooperation.
And in 2022 we reported on a $1.1bn arms sale to Taiwan by the Biden administration.
The sale included $355m for Harpoon air-to-sea missiles and $85m for Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, the state department said.
Quick Guide
China-Taiwan relations
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A brief history
The Chinese government claims Taiwan as a province of China and has not ruled out taking it by force.
At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the losing Kuomintang government fled to the island of Taiwan, establishing the Republic of China (ROC) government in exile. On the mainland the Chinese Communist party (CCP) established the People’s Republic of China.
From the 1970s onwards many nations began switching their formal ties from the ROC to Beijing, and today fewer than 15 world governments recognise the ROC (Taiwan) as a country.
The CCP has never ruled over Taiwan and since the end of the civil war Taiwan has enjoyed de facto independence.
Since its decades-long period of martial law ended in the 1980s, Taiwan has also grown to become a vibrant democracy with free elections and media.
But unification is a key goal of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has said Taiwan is already a sovereign country with no need to declare independence, but Beijing regards Taiwan’s democratically elected government as separatists.
Under Xi’s rule, aggression towards Taiwan has increased and analysts believe the threat of invasion is at its highest in decades.
In recent years the People’s Liberation Army has sent hundreds of war planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, as part of greatly increased “grey zone” activities, which are combat-adjacent but do not meet the threshold of war.
Taiwan is working to modernise its military and is buying large numbers of military assets and weapons from the US in the hope it can deter Xi and the CCP from making a move. Helen Davidson
Guests are now being treated to a performance by traditional dancers and acrobats. The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin report:
This is a traditional opera dance inviting gods to give blessings to the new president. This sort of dance is often seen in the many temples (Buddhist and Taoist) spread across Taiwan.
Lai will build on Tsai’s efforts to strengthen ties with the US, which doesn’t formally recognize Taiwan as a country but is bound by its own laws to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
During Tsai’s tenure, Taiwan became the first society in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, though critics say she skirted political responsibility by leaving the decision up to the Supreme Court and a series of referendums.
She oversaw a controversial pension and labor reform and extended the military conscription length to one year. She also kickstarted a military modernisation drive, including a program for building indigenous submarines at more than $16bn each.
Tsai’s leadership during the pandemic split public opinion, with most admiring Taiwan’s initial ability to keep the virus largely outside its borders but criticising the lack of investment in rapid testing as the pandemic progressed.
We’re expecting outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen to make a speech shortly, though things appear to be running slightly behind schedule.
Helen Davidson
On Friday we got a sign of how combative Lai’s first term may be domestically.
While Lai won the presidency, the DPP lost its majority in the legislature. The new legislature took office soon after the election, and on Friday were set to vote on a controversial new bill but debate soon turned into a physical brawl.
The bill is a parliamentary reform measure, and includes provisions which the DPP says will constrain the administration. Legal scholars have said the bill – which would allow the prosecution of literally anyone who refuses to appear before the legislature for questioning to be jailed for up to three years for the vaguely define “contempt of congress – is likely unconstitutional. But opposition parties the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party, have tried to push it through, including using methods which critics have called undemocratic.
Opposing legislators fought to take control of the rostrum, with people climbing over chairs, tables and each other to occupy the seat, jostling and shoving each other while KMT speaker Han Kuo-yu looked on. Over the melee, KMT legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin blasted out the national anthem on a plastic recorder.
Puma Shen, a former civil society figure who is a newly appointed MP, took a nasty fall over a crowd and a table. He was taken to hospital, and later released with what he said was a bad concussion.
Later that evening, as fighting continued inside, pro-DPP protesters gathered at the gate. There are more protests planned for this week. It will be interesting to see if this issue escalates, driven by the deep political divisions here.
Brawling in Taiwan’s parliament is not unheard of, in fact it’s notorious for it. Previous fights have including legislators throwing pig guts across the floor over an argument about US pork imports. But this one saw some serious injuries, and the – complicated – dispute behind it doesn’t bode well for a sense of parliamentary unity at such a tense time for Taiwan.
We’re expecting Lai to make his first speech as president at 11.10 local time, in just under two hours. He is expected to express goodwill towards Beijing, and call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to pursue peace, a senior official briefed on the matter told Reuters.
As Lai signs appointment decrees for the Premier, Secretary-General to the President, and National Security Council Secretary-General, the defence forces are performing for guests, marching with flags and saluting with guns.
Helen Davidson
More now from the Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin:
As the very formal handover was conducted, the screen behind the leaders was filled with emojis and the message “Thank you President Xiao Ing”, using a nickname for the outdoing president, Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, “Little Ing”.
Helen Davidson
Beijing has a lot on its plate, but it’s not letting any slights go unpunished.
On Wednesday China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced it would be punishing five Taiwanese political commentators – and their families – for “spreading rumours to smear the mainland”.
According to the spokesman, Chen Binhua said the offenders had disregarded the facts of China’s development and progress, and had been deliberately fabricating rumours which “often fuelled netizens’ antagonism” on both sides of the Strait.
Among the egregious falsehoods Chen accused Edward Huang, head of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Central Executive Committee, of mocking mainland residents for not being able to afford pickled vegetables, and TV pundit Wang Yi-chuan of claiming there are no backrests on China’s high-speed trains.
The five commentators are in Taiwan, and the undefined punishments are likely to be largely symbolic in effect.
Lai Ching-te officially takes office
Helen Davidson
Outside the president’s office, where the crowd is watching this part of the ceremony on a large screen, there is a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd as Lai is formally declared president of the Republic of China.
Helen Davidson
Two very short statements from the new leaders – Lai took the oath of office, and Hsiao pledged to uphold the constitution. They are now being presented with the seal of the Republic of China.
Meanwhile outside the president’s office, the controversial new speaker of the legislature – opposition MP Han Kuo-yu – has arrived. There is some very light booing from the crowd (Han will have few fans here).
Lai and Hsiao sworn in
Lai has been sworn in, and his vice-president, Hsiao Bi-khim, is being sworn in now.
She describes herself as a “cat-warrior”: A political veteran, Hsiao, 52, came up with her own nickname when she was sent to Washington – with her four cats – in 2020.
The moniker was her response to Beijing’s aggressive “wolf warrior” style diplomacy, which was becoming increasingly combative at that time. Like a cat, Taiwan’s diplomacy would be agile, flexible and comfortable in narrow spaces, she said. The animals are lovable but also independent.
Guests bowed towards a large portrait of Sun Yat Sen, the National father of the Republic of China. Lai then took to the stage to bow, too.
The national anthem has just finished, and the guests have taken a bow.
