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
Lai thanks the outgoing leaders for, “Refusing to be swayed by external forces.”
He speaks of the “dark time” of authoritarian rule in Taiwan, and says that Taiwan is now, and remains, a sovereign nation.
Lai says a third term of a political party is full of challenges. This is the outcome that people had made sacrifices for. He says voters not only welcome the new government, but also the victory of democracy.
Lai, in his first speech as president of Taiwan, starts with a greeting.
“Standing here I am determined to strengthen the nation,” he says. “With an unwavering heart I accepted the responsibility people have entrusted to me.”
President Lai Ching-te’s inaugural address is about to begin.
Lai and Hsiao have arrived on stage at the celebrations. They will now be honoured with a 21-gun salute, ahead of Lai’s speech.
Tsai Ing-wen, the leader who brought Taiwan closer to the US, bows out
Amy Hawkins
In a riot of yellow braids, glitter and spandex, garnished with a huge yellow water lily, Taiwan’s latest global celebrity danced her heart out for the island’s diminutive, softly spoken president, whose mild manners belie her outsized legacy.
Tsai Ing-wen, 67, stepped down as Taiwan’s president on Monday. Before handing over the keys, on Wednesday she welcomed Taiwan’s most famous drag queen, Nymphia Wind, for a live performance in the presidential office. After sashaying to Lady Gaga’s Marry the Night, Nymphia Wind, who recently won the 16th season of the US reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race, thanked Tsai for “all these years of making Taiwan the first in so many things”.
Tsai took office as the first female president in 2016. Since then, Taiwan has become the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage. Government statistics suggest that it is doing better than anywhere else in Asia in terms of gender equality. Her first term saw increases in the minimum wage and a boost in funding for childcare.
But Tsai’s biggest legacy will be her cultivation of Taiwan’s rising prominence on the world stage, fostering closer relations with the US, even while losing formal diplomatic allies and navigating a tricky relationship with China.
In a social media post on Sunday evening, her final night as president, Tsai thanked Taiwan’s people for giving her eight years in office.
“I walked into the Presidential Office with the belief of reform,” she said.
“Although there were many challenges and tests in the process, we have all witnessed Taiwan’s progress and changes under the belief of making the country better. Thank you all for working with me to create many firsts for Taiwan, allowing freedom, democracy, fairness, justice, respect and tolerance to take root in this land, writing history for Taiwan, and promoting the country’s overall development.
“I have said that my term will end on [20 May], but our country will continue to move forward. If I had to leave a message to Taiwan, I would say that I hope Taiwan is a united Taiwan.”
Here is Blinken’s full statement:
The United States congratulates Dr. Lai Ching-te on his inauguration as Taiwan’s fifth democratically elected president. We also congratulate the Taiwan people for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust and resilient democratic system.
The partnership between the American people and the Taiwan people, rooted in democratic values, continues to broaden and deepen across trade, economic, cultural, and people-to-people ties.
The United States commends President Tsai Ing-wen for strengthening ties between the United States and Taiwan over the past eight years.
We look forward to working with President Lai and across Taiwan’s political spectrum to advance our shared interests and values, deepen our longstanding unofficial relationship, and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Heads of state, dignitaries and other foreign guests are arriving ahead of Lai’s speech, which will start in just under 15 minutes.
The metal band that just played is called Fire EX. It became famous during Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement protests 10 years ago, the Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin report.
A short while ago, the band played a song that they also performed at the DPP’s pre-election rally, at which were many elderly party supporters who probably didn’t have a long history of moshing.
The lyrics include “God please bless me like a Taiwanese” and “let’s stand up, like Taiwanese”.
This Taiwan metal band, Fire EX, playing at the inauguration also played at the DPP’s pre-election rally in January. They were very popular, especially among the elderly party supporters who likely didn’t have a long history of moshing. My face scene from the rally: pic.twitter.com/huDr7WLlhg
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) May 20, 2024
Blinken congratulates Lai
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Taiwan’s newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te, saying he looked forward to Washington and Taipei deepening ties and maintaining “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
“We also congratulate the Taiwan people for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust and resilient democratic system,” Blinken said in a statement.
China adds US weapons companies to ‘unreliable entities’ list over supplies to Taiwan
The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin report that China’s ministry of commerce has just announced three US weapons manufacturers have been added to its list of “unreliable entities”, over their supply of arms to Taiwan.
The companies, Boeing Defense Space and Security, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems, are banned from importing or exporting with China, holding investments inside China and senior executives are banned from entering China or applying for entry or resident permits.
Such an announcement is not overly surprising – it’s expected that Beijing would have some sort of reactions to today’s inauguration, which it strongly objects to. It had also criticised foreign governments like the UK and Australia for sending delegations to the event. No country except those which are formally allied with Taiwan have sent heads of state or ministers to the event. The guests are mostly made up of parliamentary delegations, or groups of people adjacent to government.
The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin report on the attendees at the swearing in ceremony earlier:
Among the small crowd of witnesses at Lai’s swearing-in were Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, the leading semiconductor manufacturer which is makes most of the world’s highest grade chips and is responsible for a significant portion of Taiwan’s GDP.
After the formalities they and Tsai went outside to greet the thousands of delegates and members of the public gathered for the ceremony. Tsai shook the hands of the incoming team, in front of a screened message thanking “Xiao Ing” (a nickname for Tsai meaning “little Ing”) for her service.
In the VIP section of the ceremony sat more than 600 people in delegations from multiple countries including 11 of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies, and key international friends including the UK, US, Japan and Australia. Among the American delegation is the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Most of the delegates attended a formal reception last night with Lai, VP Hsiao, and the outgoing foreign minister Joseph Wu. Lai told the crowd that today’s “peaceful transfer of power” was a milestone for Taiwan’s young democracy. He welcomed the delegates and said he hoped he could continue to count on their help to have Taiwan be a “force of stability in the region” and to increase its international participation.
Taipei has been buzzing with preparation in recent days – airforce planes and helicopters have been practising flybys over the city for the aerial formation show expected later this morning to congratulate Lai.
Between speeches the crowd was treated to an array of Taiwanese dance performances ranging from traditional opera to hip hop.
Here are some more photos from the celebrations so far. Lai’s first speech as president is expected to start in just over half an hour.
For his swearing-in, Lai wore a purple tie, representing a butterfly native to Taiwan, and a yellow pin on his lapel of mustard flowers, a common plant in fields across the island.
He received two seals symbolising his presidential power from the parliament speaker, the seal of Republic of China and the seal of honour, both brought to Taiwan after the Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Helen Davidson
Some people in Taiwan are still wary of Lai’s independence-leaning past. And he has inherited cost of living and other domestic issues. In Taipei, an ardently pro-DPP taxi driver says he was a huge fan of Tsai. He thinks Lai is “not bad”.
The wariness among even party diehards is just one of the challenges Lai faces. Beijing is “bound to launch cognitive warfare” over the fact that he won the presidency with just 40.5% of the three-way vote, says Professor Shen Yu-Chung at the department of political science at Tunghai University. His party also lost control of the legislature. “The DPP’s lack of a majority in parliament will definitely undermine Lai’s presidency,” says Fell. “I am not sure whether either [opposition party] is interested in collaborative policy making.”
Lai’s minority win is something of a setback for a politician more used to high popularity. The campaign attacks did some damage. The “illegal” house accusations painted him as a kind of elite landlord flouting the laws – something Luo says insulted the whole village.
Back in Wanli, one group of tourists take selfies outside the door. The property is not as upmarket as they were led to believe but they think the criticism of Lai was fair. Ben, from Taipei, tells the Guardian there are houses all over Taiwan that fall into legal grey areas, including his own. “But I’m not the president.”
Lai’s KMT rival, Hsieh, is warily withholding judgment. Hsieh says Taiwan should “give Lai a chance”.
“Lai is very stubborn on some things, but there is a lot of compromise.”
Helen Davidson
A break from these very vibrant celebrations to take a closer look at Lai Chin-te:
As chief resident at NCKU hospital, legislator, and then mayor of Tainan, Lai developed a reputation for being a perfectionist, and working his staff hard. In his younger years he could be “aggressive, thumping tables and shouting” during meetings, recalls Wang. “Lai is very stubborn, he always insists on what he believes is correct,” he says.
He drew fame as Tainan mayor for boycotting meetings in protest against corruption, and for his fiery clashes with his long-time political rival, KMT politician Hsieh Long-jie.
In 2017, Lai was appointed premier by President Tsai, but resigned the next year after the DPP suffered widespread defeat in district elections. In early 2019, Lai sought preselection as the DPP’s presidential candidate for the upcoming election, directly challenging Tsai – the first time such an act had been taken against a sitting president in Taiwan’s modern democratic history.
He lost the battle, Tsai won 35.67% of the primaries vote to Lai’s 27.48%, but what could have been a party-damaging rupture was handled swiftly, with Lai invited to run as Tsai’s vice-president, says Fell. “Tsai was very skilful in the way she was able to bring Lai back into the fold and to project the image of a united party in the 2020 campaign.”
The Tsai-Lai ticket won the election with record-breaking support. Four years later, Lai has pledged to continue Tsai’s path, which means a diversion from his past – and possibly current – beliefs.
Tsai moderated the impact of her pro-sovereignty position by advocating for cross-strait relations to be conducted within the framework of Taiwan’s laws and constitution, which hold references to the existence of “one China” of which both China and Taiwan are part. The ambiguity helps keep the peace, analysts have said. But in some public statements, including the presidential debate and political rallies, Lai has revealed scepticism about the concept, and of the constitution.
Our Taiwan correspondent Helen Davidson reports that the horse symbolises strength and moving forward, unstopped by rain and wind.
Next up: a rap performance.
Happening now: tigers, cheerleaders, a scarecrow, dancing delicacies, singing preschoolers, giant birds.
