Taiwan’s new president to extend goodwill to China in inauguration speech

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s next president Lai Ching-te will express “concrete” goodwill towards China in his inauguration speech on Monday, and call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to pursue peace, according to a senior official briefed on the matter.

Lai, who takes over from President Tsai Ing-wen having served as her vice president for the past four years, will say that Taiwan will continue to be a promoter of regional peace and stability, the official said.

Beijing views proudly democratic Taiwan as its own territory, over the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Lai, 64, and widely known by his English name William, is detested by Beijing as a “separatist” and China has rebuffed his repeated calls for talks.

In his speech, at the Japanese colonial-era presidential office in central Taipei, Lai will pledge to maintain the status quo with China “neither being overbearing nor self-effacing”, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

He will call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to pursue peace and common prosperity, the official added.

Lai is also set to mention that China has ramped up military and diplomatic pressures on Taiwan.

Last week, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, responding to a question on the inauguration, said Lai, who it called the “Taiwan region’s new leader”, had to make a clear choice between peaceful development or confrontation.