The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Ching-te was sworn in as Taiwan’s new leader on Monday, after Beijing branded him a “dangerous separatist.” Lai faces a full inbox, with political gridlock at home, sabre-rattling from Beijing, and dwindling allies abroad. HKFP rounds up photography from the inauguration day in Taipei.
In Lai’s first speech as the island’s president, delivered just after 11 am, Lai said Taiwan would continue to work with the world’s democracies to “combat disinformation, strengthen democratic resilience, address challenges and allow Taiwan to become the MVP [Most Valuable Player] of the democratic world.”
He said there existed “a strong international consensus that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are indispensable to global stability and prosperity,” and said that when it came to cross-strait relations, his government would “neither yield, nor provoke,” but “maintain the status quo.”
Soon after the speech was over, Taiwan’s military aircraft performed flyovers, which sent people’s smartphones skywards as they recorded the spectacle.
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