Taiwanese voters swept the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te into power on Saturday in an explicit rejection of China’s warnings not to vote for him in an election Beijing framed as a choice between war and peace.
Current Vice-President Lai’s DPP, which champions Taiwan’s separate identity and rejects China’s territorial claims, was seeking a third term, unprecedented under Taiwan’s current electoral system.
Lai was facing two opponents for the presidency — Hou Yu-ih of Taiwan’s largest opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je of the small Taiwan People’s Party, only founded in 2019. Both conceded
