PRC bullying motivated Taiwan leader’s push to protect democracy

FORUM Staff

Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te points to a pair of life-changing factors as spurring his career in public service — poverty and protecting democracy.

Lai, who will be inaugurated as the self-governed island’s leader on May 20, 2024, grew up in New Taipei City as the youngest of six children. His father died in a coal mining accident three months after Lai’s birth, according to media reports.

“One of the biggest assets my father left me was being impoverished,” Lai told Time magazine. “Because in this environment, I worked harder, more vigorously on everything I did. It gave me a sense of determination.”

Lai became a physician and studied public health at Harvard University in the United States. “His inclination to persevere is obviously influenced by the environment in which he grew up,” Luo Wen-jia, who served as a Taiwan cabinet minister and as secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told Nikkei Asia magazine.

Lai’s supporters say his humble beginnings and his experience as a city mayor make him more attuned to societal challenges such as rising housing costs and underemployment.

“He’s suffered through cold and poverty, so he understands very well the hardships that we people went through at the grassroots in those times,” Tseng Chun-jen, a longtime DPP activist, told The New York Times newspaper.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) coercion of the island — including military bullying and election interference — was a defining moment in Lai’s career change from physician to politician. The impetus came in 1996 when the People’s Liberation Army fired missiles into waters off Taiwan to intimidate voters ahead of the island’s first direct presidential election.

“I decided I had a duty to participate in Taiwan’s democracy and help protect this fledgling experiment from those who wished it harm,” Lai wrote in an essay for The Wall Street Journal newspaper.

He became a legislator, a two-term mayor of Tainan, premier and, in 2020, vice president under Tsai Ing-wen, who is leaving office because of term limits. The Washington Post newspaper described Lai, during his early career, as idealistic, solemn, serious about his work and focused on the minutia of government policies. “The only time he really seemed to relax was when talking about his — and arguably Taiwan’s — favorite sport: Baseball,” the newspaper said.

With the DPP winning an unprecedented third four-year term, Lai has pledged continuity. “My commitment to defending peace, our democratic achievements and the cross-strait status quo is stronger than ever,” he said during the campaign. In late April 2024, he retained key cabinet members in defense, foreign affairs and security roles.

The decision came amid continuing military intimidation and other gray-zone tactics as the Chinese Communist Party threatens to annex Taiwan by force.

Taiwan’s 2024 election, Lai said after his victory, showed the world that “between democracy and authoritarianism, we will stand on the side of democracy.”