William Lai sworn in as Taiwan's new president, pledges to defend island's democracy

Taiwan's new President William Lai has pledged to defend the island's democracy, calling on China to end its military intimidation. In his inauguration speech, Mr Lai also directly addressed the threat of war. China claims Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out using force to bring it under Chinese control. Mr Lai is taking helm at a time when China's growing military assertiveness in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the region has caused concerns among countries. Victoria Jen and Olivia Siong report.

[tstecksuan]

President William Lai of Taiwan did not mince words when he delivered his great speech on his inauguration ceremony. Republic of China 🇨🇳 Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation is a reality and the CCP regime at Beijing must accept this fact. Any use of force resulting in war across the straits will be a disaster not only for China but the world which is watching and will not allow the CCP to alter the present peaceful status quo by force. Any decision on the future of Taiwan must be decided by the 23 million Taiwanese.💪

[AhmetTekin]

Congrat to Mr Lai, new president of Taiwan.

[harbinger]

Congratulations President William Lai ❤️🇨🇳🇹🇼🦾😇

[hopkin]

The scariest thing about the Taiwan and China issue is that China has NEVER ONCE ASKED the people of Taiwan what they wanted. There are no referendums called by China to let Taiwan decide by vote whether it wants independence or reunification, China has never asked Taiwan how they should coexist and never consulted Taiwan for advice either. If someone wants to make an important decision concerning YOU, wouldn't you want him/her to consult you and ask you about it first? Yeah, exactly.

[hopkin]

Congratulations on becoming President Mr Lai. Best of luck to you for your political future! 👍

[EmilDVillamin]

Philippines will support Taiwan at all cause.💪💪💪

[nirvana]

The Taiwan controversy was only a continuation of the Chinese Civil War (1946-1949). Most democracies sympathize with Taiwan simply out of values. I think if the U.S. military forces in the Asia-Pacific region are not directly involved in the war in Taiwan. Taiwan will be completely occupied by the PLA within a week. And the thinking of most Taiwanese is extremely naïve. They know almost nothing about military affairs. Because Taiwanese army is not at all an equal in magnitude opponent of the PLA. Taiwan is not Ukraine. Taiwan is an island. If the PLA begins to attack Taiwan, it will definitely set up a no-fly zone and a no-voyage zone. And dispatch all naval and air forces to guard the perimeter. This means that U.S and Japanese transport aircraft and transport ships cannot come close to the island. It is impossible to give Taiwan more weapons and equipment. And the area of Taiwan is less than 5% of Ukraine. And Taiwan does not have strategic depth. The war is also unlikely to drag on like Ukraine. China will only fight a quick victory. If the US military in the Asia-Pacific is involved War in Taiwan. Then all US military bases in Japan and South Korea, as well as in Southeast Asia, will be devastated. However, if Washington escalates further, the world will be on the brink of all-out nuclear war. Washington's actions in the light of the war in Ukraine. I do not think that the US military will be directly involved in the war in Taiwan. Because it's not sane and not cost-effective.

[jingqiuwu]

This new president is a decendent of the imperial japanese army. Their ancestor who were a japanese soldier fled to Taiwan after the war. This group of japanese soldiers were told to stay back and mixed into the population and married the locals. Their offsprings were secretly told to get into the leadership to ultimately conspire to cede Taiwan into Japan. They learned mandarin but they did not learn Minan (Fujian dialect). So that is the only secret they could be detected. Basically, they secretly get their children to learn their Japanese language. Ultimately they will be back to Japan with Taiwan. It is a conspiracy !

[ArabicReja]

It doesn't matter how many times the Chinese regime repeats the *lies, *
or how *angry* it pretends to be,
- Taiwan 🇹🇼 is still an independent country

[SebastianYap-xjju]

Sun yat Sen and general Chiang.

Kuo Ming tang has sun yat Sen

William lai and sun yat Sen

Sun yat Sen has William lai(general Chiang) and Mao ze dong(China Xi Xi ping thought)

William lai versus Xi Xi ping
General Chiang versus Mao ze dong

[raihan]

My condolences to all Chinese 🇨🇳 who lost their freedom of speech and independent brain, and have become victims of expansionism in disguise of nationalism with the fact that China is NO Superpower:
- The GDP per capita of the second most populous country is 99th in the world, still behind many African countries,
- It doesn't respect international laws and orders, and
- it's coercive against smaller nations

[BellaHuang-flzg]

賴先生在中華民國國慶日的演講, , , 講得一個人很爽，但這是要全民承擔後果呀😢以為有AI靠山 可以開始說話大聲了厚!! 看看烏克蘭以為有美國背書靠山喔!! 自己要承擔後果喔!! 美國就是很明顯的挑起仇恨... 跟台灣的民進黨一個樣... 美國會願意看著台灣掐著AI產業嗎? 烏俄戰爭快落幕了.. 美國的石油頁岩油武器怎麼賣呢? 接下來就想辦法挑高台海危機吧! 大家等著看吧!! 看看美國在這賴發言前後的態度!! 國外企業會開始跑了吧... 打吧! 看來免不了一戰

[kampoengbatoe]

Will Lai continue Tsai's previous plan to import 100, 000 Indian workers to clean up all toilets in government buildings?
Millions of young Indians are still jobless, desperately need to work. As India's "brother" Lai shall help lah.

[AmairaNymativy-uyvf]

Mainland and Taiwan are considered parts of China since the end of WWII. Someone Taiwanese want to deprive the mainland’s share in Taiwan without any compensation. Lai is the leader of this robbery and he urges mainland to allow this robbery a peaceful success.

[DonBossMan]

Long live Taiwan, long live President Lai! -Philipines