“We have to be united, united for Taiwan,” Hu said. The former police inspector warned that escalating tensions between China, Taiwan and the United States were putting residents at risk, especially in the south of the country where fighter planes had become a feature of daily life.
“We have to make sure that people in southern Taiwan feel safe and stable,” he said.
Foreign officials in Taipei, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said they expected Beijing to declare its displeasure with Lai's win, as military threats escalate ahead of the inauguration scheduled for May.
Kuomintang presidential candidate Hui Yuecredit: Daniel Singh
On Saturday, eight Chinese warplanes and six naval ships passed through the air defense identification zone in southwestern Taiwan. They were followed by 15 fighter jets on Friday.
Lai's victory has put his relations with foreign governments in Beijing's crosshairs after years of feuding with his Democratic Progressive Party predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen. The DPP's victory secures Tsai's legacy after eight years in power that saw her popularity soar following China's crackdown in neighboring Hong Kong and years of resistance to an increasingly aggressive Beijing, which has vowed to unify Taiwan with the mainland by force if necessary.
Lai, Tsai's vice president, said he would try to pick up the phone to China to replace “confrontation with dialogue,” but Beijing was unlikely to respond after freezing all official diplomatic contacts with the Democratic Progressive Party after Tsai's first victory in 2016.
China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, warned in an opinion article published in Australian She said on Friday that any “miscalculation” in Canberra's relations with the new Taiwanese government would push the Australian people “over the edge”.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday that Canberra would continue to build its informal relationship with Taiwan. The Australian government does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, but it maintains economic relations with the democratic island, which has become Australia's seventh largest trading partner.
“It is important that everyone respects the results of the democratic elections,” the spokesman said. “Peace and stability are in all our interests. Australia does not want to see any unilateral change to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”
Despite winning the presidential election, Lai will now have to govern without a majority in Taiwan's lower house of representatives for the first time since Taiwan became a democracy in 1996. The DPP lost the youth vote to its rival Taiwan People's Party. [TPP] After a campaign targeting young people and promising them economic growth while stabilizing tensions with China.
As polls closed on Saturday, Alex Chan walked out of a polling station in Datong with his seven-year-old daughter Annie and his wife Cheng Wen-yin after voting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Alex Chan with his wife and daughter outside a polling station in Taipei. credit: Daniel Singh
“I'm worried about her safety,” Chan said. “I want to keep her away from the front line.”
Younger Taiwanese workers also said they were exhausted by years of talking about conflict with Beijing.
“They need to stop using the idea that Taiwan is dying,” said Emma Ling, a 26-year-old sales assistant.
The Democratic Progressive Party, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2019 and cemented its reputation as Asia's leading progressive government, has become more predictable in President Tsai's second term, leaking youth votes to a rival Trans-Pacific Partnership Party that has come from nowhere to become a threat. For a center-left government.
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“They need to be more extreme,” 27-year-old Jason Lee said after voting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in downtown Taipei.
Ku Wen-je, leader of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Party, said his four-year-old party had taken the fight to the two major parties that have dominated Taiwanese politics for the past three decades.
“We have proven to the world that Taiwan has a party separate from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang. We are optimistic about the future of democracy in Taiwan.”
Taiwan People's Party supporter Jason Lee in downtown Taipei. credit: Daniel Singh
It will now fall to Lai to address the challenge to the TPP, as the DPP reaches a historic third term. Lai has run an election campaign that relied largely on continuing Tsai's legacy, but he will need to do more to appeal to younger voters if he is to eliminate the threat to the Trans-Pacific Partnership within four years. For Beijing, a victory for Lai is a worst-case scenario, culminating in the rejection of her unification push by a candidate who in 2017 described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence.”
These comments angered the Chinese government. The uneasy truce between Beijing and Taipei, known as the “status quo,” recognizes China’s claims to the island, while allowing Taiwanese officials to continue ruling without a formal international declaration of independence.
Worshipers pray at Taipei's Xiahai Qinghuang Temple after voting in Saturday's election. credit: Daniel Singh
Outside the shrine of Shihai Qinghuang Temple in central Taipei on Saturday evening, hundreds of Taiwanese came to pray after casting their votes. More than 70 percent participated in voting this year, making Taiwan one of the highest voluntary voting districts despite no system for postal, absentee or early voting.
One worshiper, TC Lee, said he prayed “for 2024 to be smooth.” The 25-year-old said it was his duty to vote because the future of the country was at stake.
He added: “War is only a matter of time.” “If the Kuomintang or the Trans-Pacific Partnership had won, our sovereignty would have disappeared.”
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