Lai Ching-te

Lai took office on 8 September as the 49th Premier of Taiwan.

Lai was born into a working-class coal mining family in Wanli, a rural coastal town in northern Taipei County (now New Taipei City) on 6 October 1958.

Lai Ching-te (born 6 October 1959 ), also known as William Lai, is a Taiwanese politician and former physician who is the current vice president and president-elect of Taiwan, having won the 2024 presidential election.

His inauguration will be held on 20 May 2024.

He is due to be the third incumbent vice president of Taiwan to become president, and the first to assume the office through election instead of a predecessor's death.

Lai's father died on 8 January 1960 of carbon Monoxide poisoning while laboring in the coal mines of Wanli.

His mother raised him and his five siblings as a single parent.

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.

Lai then studied at the Harvard School of Public Health for a Master's degree in Public Health, 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.

After serving as part of the support team for Chen Ding-nan's unsuccessful electoral bid for Governor of Taiwan Province in 1994, Lai decided to enter politics himself.

After serving as the president of the National Physician Support Association, Lai ran in the 1996 Legislative Yuan election, winning a seat representing Tainan City.

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.

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.

Born to a working-class coal mining family in Taipei County, Lai studied rehabilitation and public health at universities in Taipei, ultimately obtaining a Master's degree from Harvard University in 2003.

After being re-elected to the Legislative Yuan four consecutive times, Lai ran for Mayor of Tainan in 2010.

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, Lai stood as the DPP candidate for the mayoral election on 27 November 2010, gaining 60.41% to defeat Kuomintang candidate Kuo Tien-tsai.

He took office on 25 December 2010.

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%.

Lai won and served as mayor for seven years, winning reelection in 2014.

Lai made on 5 June 2014 a visit to the city of Shanghai to assist an exhibition of art by the late Taiwanese painter Tan Ting-pho and met politicians of the Chinese Communist Party.

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".

Lai, on the other hand, did not plan many campaign activities, choosing to focus on mayoral duties.

He eventually won the election by 45 percentage points, the largest margin of victory in any of the municipal races in the election.

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.

In September 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen announced Lai would replace outgoing premier Lin Chuan.

Lai stepped down as Mayor in September 2017, after being appointed to the Premiership.

He was succeeded in acting capacity by Lee Meng-yen.

In September 2017, Premier Lin Chuan tendered his resignation to President Tsai Ing-wen, which was reluctantly accepted.

A recent poll showed Lin's approval rating to be a mere 28.7%, with 6 in 10 respondents dissatisfied with the performance of his cabinet.

On 5 September, President Tsai announced at a press conference that Lai would become the country's next head of the Executive Yuan.

On 24 November 2018, Lai announced his intention to resign from the premiership after the Democratic Progressive Party suffered a major defeat in local elections, and left office on 14 January 2019 after the swearing-in of his successor Su Tseng-chang.

Lai mounted a challenge against Tsai in the 2019 Democratic Progressive Party presidential primary and after defeat, served as Tsai's running mate in the 2020 Taiwan presidential election in which the tandem was victorious.

In April 2023, Lai was nominated by the DPP as their presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election and was elected with 40.05% of votes.

Describing himself as a "pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence", Lai favors preserving the current status quo in regards to the political status of Taiwan, arguing that it is already independent, as well as strengthening relations with the United States and other liberal democracies.

He has served as vice president since 2020.