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Democracy Wins in Taiwan
“Taiwan’s voters rebuff China and give ruling party third presidential term,” reported Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu for Reuters this morning.
“Taiwan’s voters rebuff China and give ruling party third presidential term,” reported Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu for Reuters this morning. “Taiwanese voters swept the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te into power on Saturday, strongly rejecting Chinese pressure to spurn him, as China said it would not give up on achieving ‘reunification.’”
The exciting news — that Taiwan’s independent presidential candidate had triumphed over the Chinese Communist Party’s “pro-unification” candidate in a democratic election — soon spread like wildfire.
“Taiwan voters dismiss China warnings and hand ruling party a historic third consecutive presidential win,” reported Eric Cheung, Wayne Chang, Nectar Gan, and Jerome Taylor for CNN.
“Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s current vice president, declared victory on Saturday evening while his two opposition rivals both conceded defeat,” they added.
“This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world,” said a jubilant President-elect Lai Ching-te of his historic triumph. “The election has shown the world the commitment of the Taiwanese people to democracy, which I hope China can understand.”
“Taiwan is part of China,” said the CCP in an officious, if ominous, reply.
In the U.S., both Democratic and Republican Party lawmakers celebrated the win as a victory.
“We congratulate William Lai on his election as the next President of Taiwan and we are happy to see democracy thriving among the Taiwanese people,” tweeted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in response to the election result.
“The United States is eager to work with President-elect Lai and build on the strong partnership we’ve enjoyed with President Tsai,” Speaker Johnson promised. “To underscore the ongoing commitment of Congress to security and democracy, I will be asking the chairs of the relevant House Committees to lead a delegation to Taipei following Lai’s inauguration in May.”
“I am hopeful the United States and Taiwan together will continue promoting the principles…
