Lai Ching-te

Early Life and Medical Career

Lai Ching-te was born on 6 October 1959 into a poor mining family in Wanli, Taipei County (now Wanli District, New Taipei), the youngest of five children. When he was two his father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a mining accident, and his mother raised the children alone. From Wanli Junior High School he won a place at Chien Kuo High School, graduated from National Taiwan University in physical medicine and rehabilitation in 1984, and did military service on Kinmen as a medical platoon leader. He then studied at National Cheng Kung University's post-baccalaureate medical school, graduating in 1989, qualified as a specialist in internal medicine and nephrology, and worked as an attending physician at NCKU Hospital and Sin-lau Hospital.

Entering Politics and Mayor of Tainan

In 1994 Lai organised a physicians' support group in Tainan for Chen Ding-nan's campaign for governor of Taiwan Province, and Chen became his political mentor. After the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1995–1996 he left medicine for politics, winning a seat in the National Assembly for Tainan City in 1996. From 1998 he was elected four times to the Legislative Yuan for the DPP, serving from 1999 to 2010, and in 2003 he earned a master's degree in public health from Harvard.

When Tainan city and county merged in 2010, Lai was elected the first mayor of the new municipality with 60.41% of the vote, and he was re-elected in 2014. In June 2014 he visited Shanghai and, speaking at Fudan University, said Taiwanese independence was a widespread consensus in Taiwan. In 2015 he refused for nearly eight months to attend the city council in protest at the election of a speaker accused of vote-buying; the Control Yuan impeached him and the disciplinary commission later issued an admonition.

Premier and Vice President

Lai became premier on 8 September 2017. On 26 September, answering questions in the Legislative Yuan, he described himself as "a political worker who advocates Taiwan independence", arguing that Taiwan was already a sovereign independent country called the Republic of China and had no need to declare independence; he later called himself a "pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence". His amendments to the Labor Standards Act drew protests from labour groups. After the DPP's heavy defeat in the 2018 local elections he offered his resignation, and on 11 January 2019 his cabinet resigned en masse and Su Tseng-chang succeeded him.

In 2019 Lai unsuccessfully challenged Tsai Ing-wen in the DPP presidential primary, then became her running mate and was elected vice president in 2020. In 2023 he was elected DPP chairman unopposed and nominated for the 2024 election.

Elected Taiwan's Leader

On 13 January 2024 Lai and Hsiao Bi-khim won with 40.05% of the vote, giving the DPP more than eight consecutive years in power for the first time, though the party lost its legislative majority. Sworn in on 20 May, he said in his inaugural address that "the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other"; three days later the PLA Eastern Theater Command began the "Joint Sword-2024A" exercise around Taiwan.

In office he has faced a legislature in which the KMT and TPP together hold a majority. On 13 March 2025, after a high-level national security meeting, he designated mainland China a "foreign hostile force" under the Anti-Infiltration Act and announced 17 countermeasures; Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua called him "a destroyer of cross-Strait peace" the same day. On 26 July 2025, in the first round of mass recall votes backed by DPP supporters, all 24 KMT legislators targeted survived. On 19 May 2026 the Legislative Yuan held a roll-call vote on an impeachment motion brought by the KMT and TPP: 56 in favour and 50 against, short of the two-thirds threshold of 76 — the first impeachment vote against a leader in Taiwan.

Cross-Strait Views

Lai holds that Taiwan is already a sovereign independent country called the Republic of China and that "the ROC and the PRC are not subordinate to each other"; he does not accept the 1992 Consensus, while saying he is willing to engage with the mainland on the basis of parity and dignity. Beijing regards him as committed to "Taiwan independence", and the Taiwan Affairs Office has repeatedly criticised his statements.