Taiwan presidential front runner William Lai names former US envoy as running mate

TAIPEI – Mr William Lai Ching-te, front runner for Taiwan’s presidency, on Nov 20 named Taipei’s former envoy to the United States as his running mate in January’s election, a high-profile diplomat well known in Washington but who Beijing denounces as a separatist.

Mr Lai, vice-president and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, has almost consistently led opinion polls ahead of the election.

The polls are set to take place amid increased Chinese pressure on Taiwan to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Mr Lai’s running mate, Ms Hsiao Bi-khim, 52, who had been Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US since 2020, has extensive connections in Washington.

She had been widely expected to be Mr Lai’s partner on his ticket.

Ms Hsiao said she had shared values with Mr Lai, including defending Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.

“I believe we have lots of common convictions – we are both willing to take on responsibility for Taiwan,” she told reporters as she stood next to Mr Lai at campaign headquarters in Taipei.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry accepted her resignation as US envoy earlier in the day.

Mr Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council who has known Ms Hsiao since the 1990s, said she was a “formidable politician”, and would add much needed diplomatic and security heft to Mr Lai’s ticket.

“Bi-khim’s relationships in (Washington) D.C. will be invaluable to a President Lai, if he is elected, she’s going to bring all of those relationships into his government, and he doesn’t have those,” he told Reuters.

The US, as with most countries, has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is the island’s most important international supporter and arms supplier.

Like Mr Lai, Ms Hsiao is detested by China, which has on two occasions placed sanctions on her, most recently in April, saying she is an “independence diehard”.

China’s Foreign Ministry declined to answer a question about Ms Hsiao, saying it was not a diplomatic issue.

‘Independence act’

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Nov 15 referred to Mr Lai and Ms Hsiao as an “independence double act” and that Taiwan’s people are “very clear” about what them teaming up means for the “situation in the Taiwan Strait”. It did not elaborate.

The DPP champions Taiwan’s separate identity from China. The DPP-led government says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

The party’s smooth handling of its vice-presidential nominee stands in contrast to efforts by Taiwan’s two main opposition parties to agree on a joint ticket. Their negotiations have stalled.

The largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which traditionally favours close ties with Beijing,

is locked in a dispute with the smaller Taiwan People’s Party

about which of their candidates should run as president and which as vice-president, after initially agreeing to work together.

The deadline to register presidential candidates with the election commission was Nov 17.

Mr Lai, writing on Facebook, pointed to the “turmoil” in the opposition camp.

“In contrast, the team I lead is definitely a fully prepared and tested one,” he said.

Ms Hsiao was born in Japan to a Taiwanese father and American mother, and initially worked in the office of then President Chen Shui-bian, also from the DPP, and then as a DPP lawmaker.

Unusually in Taiwan, she uses a Taiwanese Hokkien spelling of her name in English to underscore her identity as Taiwanese and not Chinese. REUTERS