Lai Ching-te

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Lai Ching-te

Lai Ching-te ( Chinese  賴清德 , Pinyin Lài Qīngdé , Pe̍h-ōe-jī Loā Chheng-tek ; born October 6, 1959 in Wanli ), also known as William Lai , is a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and since then May 20, 2020 Vice President of Taiwan. Previously, he was mayor of the city of Tainan and from the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2019 Chairman of the Executive Yuan and thus Prime Minister of the Republic of China (Taiwan) .

Youth and education

Lai Ching-te was raised by his single mother as one of six children after losing his father in an accident at the age of two. After finishing school, he studied medical rehabilitation at the National Cheng Kung University and National Taiwan University and the specialist Public Health at Harvard University . After returning from the United States , he worked as a therapist at the Cheng Kung National University Clinic and the private Sinlau Clinic in Tainan.

Political career

Lai's signature

In 1994, Lai served as a campaign assistant on the team for the DPP candidate for governor of Taiwan Province , Chen Ding-nan . After the election, he decided to go into politics himself and was elected to the National Assembly in 1996 . Two years later, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan (the Taiwanese parliament) as a representative of the city of Tainan , to which he was a member on multiple re-elections from 1999 to 2010.

In 2010 he stood as his party's candidate in the mayoral election of the city of Tainan and was elected mayor with 60.41% of the vote. In the same year, Tainan received the status of a city directly under the government. In the mayoral election in November 2014, Lai was confirmed in office with 72.9% of the votes. It was the highest vote any candidate for mayor in any of Taiwan's six sub-government cities.

Lai caused a national sensation in 2014 when, during a visit to Shanghai, in a speech at Fudan University , he spoke out in favor of the Taiwanese people's right to self-determination and thus indirectly in favor of Taiwan's independence from the People's Republic of China (see Taiwan conflict ) . Lai is one of the few politicians who also expressed this consensus that prevailed in Taiwanese society during a visit to China.

On September 8, 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen appointed Lai to succeed Lin Chuan as Chairman of the Executive Yuan , the Prime Minister of Taiwan . Following the heavy defeat of the DPP in the local elections in November 2018, Lai announced his resignation and handed over the office to Su Tseng-chang on January 11, 2019 .

On March 18, 2019, Lai announced his candidacy for the DPP top candidate in the upcoming presidential election the following year . In the vote from June 10 to 12, 2019, however, he was defeated by his opponent, incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen. In November of the same year, the two politicians agreed that Lai would run alongside Tsai as a candidate for the office of vice president in the election. After winning the election on January 11, 2020, Lai was sworn in as Vice President on May 20, 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. 2014 Elections: Kaohsiung's and Tainan's mayors win re-election , Taipei Times, November 30, 2014
  2. Tainan mayor says visit to Shanghai a success , The China Post of June 10, 2014
  3. Tainan mayor rattles Chinese audience , Taipei Times on June 8, 2014
  4. Popular Tainan mayor Lai Ching-te appointed Taiwan Premier as Tsai Ing-wen seeks to shore up support. Straits Times , September 5, 2017, accessed the same day
  5. ^ Lai Ching-te sworn in as new premier , Focus Taiwan, September 8, 2017
  6. Su Tseng-chang named as new premier , Focus Taiwan, January 11, 2019
  7. ^ Taiwan's pro-independence former premier William Lai to challenge President Tsai Ing-wen. South China Morning Post, March 18, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  8. Keoni Everington: Taiwan President Tsai wins DPP primary poll. Taiwan News, June 13, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  9. Teng Pei-ju: Pres. Tsai, William Lai register as candidates in Taiwan's presidential election. Taiwan News, November 19, 2019, accessed November 24, 2019 .
  10. Emerson Lim: President Tsai sworn in, commences her second term. Focus Taiwan, May 20, 2020, accessed June 15, 2020 .