The Irish Times view on the election in Taiwan: Beijing should respect the vote

Lai Ching-te’s victory in Saturday’s presidential election in Taiwan saw President Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win an unprecedented third successive term in office. But in a competitive, three-way race, the DPP saw its vote share drop sharply so that Lai won just over 40 per cent, compared to the 57 per cent Tsai won in 2020.

His failure to win a majority prompted Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office to declare that Lai did not represent mainstream opinion on the self-governing island. And it said the election result would not alter the Chinese Communist Party’s view that Taiwan is an integral part of China and that its reunification with the mainland is inevitable.

Beijing’s next moves after the election – during which it made clear that its preference was that anyone but Lai would be elected – will now be closely watched. It had refused to engage with his predecessor, though Lai has urged it to now change this strategy.

Lai once presented himself as a zealous advocate of Taiwanese independence but he has moderated his position over the years. During the campaign he said that since Taiwan was already sovereign, there was no need to make a formal declaration of independence. And in his victory speech, he took a conciliatory approach, talking of pursuing co-operation with China and also indicating that he was willing to work together with his defeated election rivals.

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Lai’s defeated rivals, the Kuomintang’s (KMT) Hou Yu-ih and the Taiwan Progressive Party’s (TPP) Ko Wen-je called for more engagement with Beijing. But neither favours reunification with the mainland and both have rejected Beijing’s formula of One Country, Two Systems.

In his first statement after Saturday’s election, president Joe Biden restated the United States position that it does not support Taiwanese independence. This was an important signal to Beijing of his commitment to the status quo and to Lai that Washington has no interest in heightening tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing framed Taiwan’s election as a choice about war and peace and warned voters there against choosing Lai. But its immediate reaction to the result has been muted, encouraging observers in Taipei to hope that relations with the mainland will be no worse than before.

If the Chinese leadership believes its own stated interpretation of Saturday’s election outcome, it should cultivate the 60 per cent of voters who voted for candidates open to more dialogue with Beijing.

The best way to do this is to respect the democratic choice of the Taiwanese people as expressed in a free election vote and to give Lai a chance, rather than engaging in the economic coercion and military intimidation which have been all too evident in recent years.