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Lawrence Chung

Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te appeared to soften his tone on Beijing as he marked his first anniversary in office earlier this week.
In his address on Tuesday, Lai – the man Beijing brands as a troublemaker – made no mention of mainland China or cross-strait relations, an omission that observers saw as a calculated departure from his typically assertive rhetoric on Beijing and Taiwan’s self-governing status.
Lai also extended an olive branch to the island’s opposition parties – the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller opposition Taiwan People’s Party – by offering to brief their leaders on national security matters.
It was a noticeable shift in tone.
Since taking office on May 20 last year, Lai has regularly used major public addresses to assert that Taiwan and the mainland “are not subordinate to each other” and described Beijing as a “hostile foreign force”.
But on Tuesday, Lai only mentioned Beijing when asked by reporters.
“Taiwan is happy to engage in exchanges and cooperation with China, as long as they are based on dignity and reciprocity,” Lai said. “We should replace containment with exchanges, and confrontation with dialogue. Peace is priceless, and war has no winners.”
Opposition figures noted the omission.
“It seems President Lai has adjusted his position – both on cross-strait relations and in his approach to opposition parties,” said Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen, a rising KMT star widely seen as a potential future party leader. “It’s something worth watching.”


Still, few see Lai abandoning his long-standing pro-independence position, with analysts casting the omission as a tactical retreat motivated by a mix of domestic political pressure and international caution.
“Polls show a clear downward trend in Lai’s approval ratings during his first year, especially on cross-strait issues,” said James Yifan Chen, a professor of diplomacy and international relations at Tamkang University in New Taipei City. “So it’s not surprising he didn’t want to dwell on what’s become a poor subject on his report card.”
Chen also pointed to the aggressive mainland military drills that followed Lai’s decision in March to introduce 17 strategies to counter Beijing’s alleged infiltration operations.
“If Lai had repeated his usual hardline rhetoric, the People’s Liberation Army would likely have flexed again,” Chen said. “The military drills annoy the public, and Lai’s combative tone only highlights his weaknesses in managing cross-strait ties.”
Chen also noted that US and international analysts had urged Lai to exercise restraint.
Lai, who once described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence”, has been under sustained pressure from both Beijing and Washington.
“These are signals for Lai,” he said, adding that Washington and Beijing were keen to stabilise their relations after reaching a 90-day truce in their trade row. “The US does not want Lai to break the momentum ... that these two powers set for their bilateral relations.”
Another Tamkang scholar, Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, offered a similar assessment.
“There are two possibilities – either Lai has no new cross-strait policy to unveil, or outside actors advised him to stay silent to avoid unnecessary controversy.”
Huang stressed that this probably did not signal a fundamental policy shift. “It’s more of a cooling-off than a reversal,” he said. “Lai may simply not want to be predictable – or he may have deliberately avoided the obvious.”


Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a part of China and does not renounce the use of force to bring it back, continues to regard Lai as a dangerous separatist. Like most countries, Washington – Taiwan’s biggest arms supplier – does not recognise the island as an independent state, but is opposed to any unilateral change of the cross-strait status quo by force.
While it has firmly supported Taiwan’s democracy, the United States has also been wary of any moves or rhetoric that could escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Following Tuesday’s speech, the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office dismissed Lai’s remarks as a “two-faced tactic”.
“No matter what Taiwan’s leaders say or how they say it, it cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China,” TAO spokesman Chen Binhua said. “Attempts at Taiwan independence are doomed to fail.”
But, unlike some of Lai’s previous speeches that have been met with immediate military muscle-flexing from the mainland, Tuesday’s anniversary address was not followed by any major PLA drills.


Taiwan’s defence ministry reported routine activity in the 24 hours until Thursday 6am: 23 aircraft sorties, eight vessels, and one official PLA vessel operating near the island, with 16 planes crossing the median line in the strait.
That muted reaction, Taipei’s analysts said, might reflect Beijing’s “wait-and-watch” attitude towards Lai’s toned-down language.
Bao Chengke, deputy director at the Shanghai Institute for East Asian Studies, said he was “a bit surprised” by Lai’s tone but Beijing’s core view of Lai remained unchanged.
“Cross-strait relations have been a consistent theme for Lai, so the absence was unexpected,” Bao said.
“If he had repeated past provocations, the PLA would have surely responded again. This change in tone suggests Lai understands that.”


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News

China

Politics

Lai omitted references to Beijing in a speech marking his first year in office this week, a change noted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait


Lai omitted references to Beijing in a speech marking his first year in office this week, a change noted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.


Shanghai

United States

William Lai Ching-te

Why did Taiwan’s William Lai tone down his rhetoric on mainland China?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lai omitted references to Beijing in a speech marking his first year in office this week, a change noted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait

Lai omitted references to Beijing in a speech marking his first year in office this week, a change noted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait