Lai Ching-te

June 4, 2024 11:35 AM

Security tight in China and Hong Kong on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

Security was tight and access restricted to Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Tuesday, the 35th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, while Hong Kong also increased policing as activists in Taiwan and elsewhere prepared to mark the date with vigils. Chinese tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to end weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers. Television news images of a lone Chinese man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks spread around the...

May 24, 2024 11:40 AM

China’s second day of war games around Taiwan tests ability to ‘seize power’

China's military carried out a second day of war games around Taiwan on Friday, with drills to test its ability to "seize power" and control key areas in exercises Beijing has said were launched to punish Taiwan's new President Lai Ching-te. The two days of drills in the Taiwan Strait and around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast, which a Taiwanese official said included the mock bombing of foreign vessels, started just three days after Lai took office. Taiwan has condem...

May 21, 2024 1:29 PM

Protests as Taiwan parliament pushes contentious reforms

Lawmakers in Taiwan jostled, unfurled banners and shouted at each other on Tuesday in a dispute about efforts to widen parliament oversight pushed by the opposition, despite the anger of the ruling party, which says there has been no consultation. The squabble comes as Lai Ching-te took office on Monday as the new president, facing not only an angry China, which views him as a "separatist", but also a fractured parliament, after his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority. Several...

April 25, 2024 10:39 AM

China should have confidence to talk to us, Taiwan’s president-elect says

China should have the confidence to talk to Taiwan's legally elected government, President-elect Lai Ching-te said on Thursday as he appointed his new national security and diplomacy team amid what he called unprecedented challenges. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, over the island's strong objections, has ramped up military and political pressure against Taipei during the past four years as it seeks to press sovereignty claims. Lai, who won election in J...