William Lai Lai Ching-te 賴清德 | |
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49th Premier of the Republic of China | |
Assumed office 8 September 2017 | |
President | Tsai Ing-wen |
Vice Premier | Shih Jun-ji |
Preceded by | Lin Chuan |
Mayor of Tainan | |
In office 25 December 2010 – 7 September 2017 | |
Deputy | Hsu He-chun |
Preceded by | Hsu Tain-tsair |
Succeeded by | Lee Meng-yen (Acting)[1] |
Member of the Legislative Yuan | |
In office 1999–2010 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Wanli, Taiwan | 6 October 1959
Political party | Template:DPP |
Education | National Taiwan University (BS) National Cheng Kung University (MD) Harvard University (MPH) |
Signature | File:Signature of Lai Ching-te.svg |
Website | Official website |
William Lai | |||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 賴清德 | ||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 赖清德 | ||||||||||||
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Template:Contains Chinese text William Lai, also known by his romanised name Lai Ching-te,[2] is a Taiwanese politician and the incumbent Premier of the Republic of China. He took office on 8 September 2017. He served as a legislator in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2010, and as mayor of Tainan from 2010 to 2017.
Pre-political life
Born in Wanli, a rural coastal town in northern Taipei County (now New Taipei City) on October 6, 1959, Lai underwent schooling in Taipei City and studied at both National Cheng Kung University in Tainan and National Taiwan University in Taipei, where he specialized in rehabilitation.[2] Lai then studied at the Harvard School of Public Health for a Masters degree in public health,[2] followed by an internship at National Cheng Kung University Hospital. He became an expert on spinal cord damage and served as a national consultant for such injuries.[2]
National Assembly and Legislative Yuan
After serving as part of the support team for Chen Ding-nan's unsuccessful electoral bid for Governor of Taiwan Province in 1994,[3] Lai decided to enter politics himself. The next opportunity for election to a national body was the 1996 National Assembly, with Lai winning a seat representing Tainan City. Lai then joined the New Tide faction and stood as a candidate in the 1998 Legislative Yuan election, representing the Democratic Progressive Party in the second ward of Tainan City.[4][2] He was successful in this election, and subsequently was reelected three times in 2001, 2004, and 2008. In total he served 11 years as a legislator, and was selected as Taiwan's "Best Legislator" four times in a row by Taipei-based NGO Citizen Congress Watch.[5]
Mayor of Tainan (2010 - 2017)
2010 municipal election
With the 2010 reorganization of the municipalities in Taiwan, Tainan City and Tainan County were amalgamated into a single municipality, called Tainan. After successfully being selected in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primaries in January 2010,[6] Lai stood as the DPP candidate for the mayoral election on 27 November 2010, gaining 60.41% to defeat Kuomintang candidate Kuo Tien-tsai.[7] He took office on 25 December 2010.
2010 Tainan City Mayoral Election Result | ||||||
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Party | # | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | ||
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1 | Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) | 406,196 | 39.59% | ![]() | |
File:Green Taiwan in White Cross.svg Democratic Progressive Party | 2 | William Lai | 619,897 | 60.41% | ![]() ![]() | |
Total | 1,026,093 | 100.00% |
As a result of his strong showing in the mayoral election coupled with his relative youth and his control of the DPP heartland city of Tainan, Lai was considered to be a potential candidate for a presidential run in 2016.[8] In 2013 an opinion poll ranked Lai as the most popular of the 22 city and county heads in Taiwan, with an approval rating of 87%.[9]
2014 municipal election
Lai stood for reelection on 29 November 2014 against Huang Hsiu-shuang of the Kuomintang. His opponent was considered to have such an uphill task in the DPP stronghold that she rode a black horse through the streets of Tainan as an election stunt; a hopeful allusion to her status as a "dark horse".[10] Lai, on the other hand, did not plan many campaign activities, choosing to focus on mayoral duties.[11] He eventually won the election by 45 percentage points,[12] the largest margin of victory in any of the municipal races in the election.[13]
2014 Tainan City Mayoral Election Result | ||||||
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No. | Candidate | Party | Votes | Percentage | ||
1 | William Lai | ![]() |
711,557 | 72.90% | ||
2 | Huang Hsiu-shuang (黃秀霜) | ![]() |
264,536 | 27.10% |
Lai stepped down as Mayor on September 7th, after being appointed to the Premiership. He was succeeded in acting capacity by Lee Meng-yen.
Premier (2017 - present)
On September 3rd, then-Premier Lin Chuan tendered his resignation to President Tsai Ing-wen, which was reluctantly accepted. A recent poll showed Lin's approve rating to be a mere 28.7%, with 6 in 10 respondents dissatisfied with the performance of his cabinet [14]. On September 5th President Tsai announced at a press conference that Lai would become the country's next head of the Executive Yuan, with the Premier-designate saying that running the government is like running in a relay race, and he vowed to take the baton from Lin and complete his unfinished major policies [15]. Lai took office on Friday, September 8th as the 49th Premier of the Republic of China. On September 17th, following Lai's appointment as Premier, President Tsai's approval ratings reached 46%, rebounding by more than 16 points since August. [16] Lai made his first appearance as premier at the Legislative Yuan on September 26th, where he stated "I am a political worker who advocates Taiwan independence" but that "We are already an independent sovereign nation called the Republic of China. We don't need a separate declaration of independence". Lai has appeared to have moderated his position on Taiwanese independence particularly when he proposed the idea of "being close to China while loving Taiwan" in June 2017. He also expressed no desire to run against Tsai Ing-wen in the 2020 Presidential election.[17] On September 28th, the New Party called on the KMT to join it in filing a formal complaint against the Premier for sedition[18]. On October 2nd, Lai visited former President Chen Shui-bian and former Premier Chang Chun-hsiung. During Lai’s visit, Chen’s hands were shaking involuntarily, and a urine bag was visible outside his pants, indicating that the former president has been ill. Chen and Lai reportedly discussed their daily lives, with Lai wishing Chen good health. At Chang's Kaoshiung residence, the former premier told him that drugs have increasingly become a pressing problem in Taiwan, with the Phillipenes claiming the origin of their drug problem is from Taiwan. Following this, Lai said that laws would be revised to toughen the penalties for drug-related crimes, while authorities must redouble their efforts to investigate and seize illicit substances.[19] On October 6th, Premier Lai requested that government agencies review the nation’s information security after the Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) reported that its system was hacked earlier in the week. The premier was fully briefed on the incident and instructed the government to learn from the case and tighten information security by closing vulnerabilities[20]. On October 7th, Premier Lai said the central government would invest a total of NT$45 billion (US$1.48 billion) by 2025 to make Penghu a “green”, energy-powered county. Lai reiterated the commitment of President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration to implement environmentally friendly measures, such as the use of alternative energy sources in Penghu, during his visit to check on its promotion of electric scooters[21]. On October 11th, Lai said that the government is not giving up its effort to present a proposal before the end of the year to legalize same-sex marriage, after concern that the issue was not moving forward. Lai dismayed gay rights groups by saying earlier in the week that the passage of any proposal would be difficult as the current legislative session was devoting all of its attention to the central government budget[22].
References
- ^ "William Lai bids farewell, thanks Tainan residents". Taipei Times. 7 September 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e 賴清德 (in Chinese). Legislative Yuan.
- ^ 陳定南的牽手張昭義挺賴清德 (in Chinese), NOWnews
- ^ Wang, Chris (11 December 2013). "DPP [d]riven by factionalism as primary polls heat up". Taipei Times. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
- ^ Lai keeps DPP's solid grip on Tainan, Central News Agency
- ^ 2009民進黨提名縣市長候選人連結 (in Chinese). Democratic Progressive Party. 2010-09-17. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ William Lai takes Tainan by storm, Taipei Times, 28 November 2010
- ^ A look ahead at Taiwan's 2016 presidential hopefuls, The China Post, 2012-01-16
- ^ Tainan City's Lai tops satisfaction poll, Taiwan News, 2013-07-19, retrieved 2013-07-09
- ^ Saturday’s elections seen as a litmus test for 2016, The Taipei Times
- ^ Chen, Ted (21 November 2014). "Incumbent Tainan Mayor William Lai hopes to continue improving his city". China Post. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
- ^ Wang, Jung-hsiang; Huang, Wen-huang; Chung, Jake (30 November 2014). "Kaohsiung and Tainan's mayors win re-election". Taipei Times. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
- ^ TAIWAN INSIDER Vol. 1 No. 10, Thinking Taiwan
- ^ http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/taiwan-premier-lin-chuan-looks-set-to-step-down-on-sept-8-reports
- ^ http://m.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2017/09/05/500178/William-Lai.htm
- ^ https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Taiwan-s-new-premier-revitalizes-President-Tsai-s-fortunes
- ^ http://m.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2017/09/26/500362/William-Lai.htm
- ^ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/09/29/2003679358
- ^ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/10/02/2003679570
- ^ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2017/10/08/2003679926
- ^ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2017/10/08/2003679927
- ^ https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3269065