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Taipei, Taiwan
The jubilation and jubilation of victory after William Lai's election victory in Taiwan was short-lived, but now the capital is back to its usual hustle and bustle.

After the election in Taiwan at the weekend,
the winner William Lai can actually stay here in the presidential palace in Taipei. He has already been vice president for four years, and his China-critical DPP was able to prevail against the more China-friendly opposition parties. Taiwan thus continues to focus on political distancing from China. For this reason, many observers had previously feared that if Lais won the election, China could escalate militarily and could further expand its threats. So far, that hasn't happened."

However, the first diplomatic punishment came on the Monday after the election: the president of the small Pacific island of Nauru announced that he would break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Naurua recognises the one-China principle and thus Beijing. The move is probably a reaction prepared by China to Lai's expected election victory and has more symbolic significance.

Nevertheless, people in the country remain cautious. When asked by the reporter whether Taiwan will be a safer place under Lai's leadership, the answer is clear:

Chen Yu-Shu, a resident of
Taipei"Taiwan has never been a safe place. I don't think it will be here even after this election. The situation in the world is currently tense in so many places, and although William Lai won the election, you can see from the vote shares that voters were not completely convinced by any of the three candidates. But now that the president is elected, everyone hopes to unite and move forward together."

On the one hand, in his victory speech,
William Lai showed himself open to dialogue with Beijing. He wants to cooperate, on an equal footing. On the other hand, his mandate was not as clear as that of his predecessor, who won an absolute majority. He won just over 40%. Beijing has therefore so far tended to rely on standard formulations in its reactions. It is not backing down from its ultimate goal of bringing Taiwan back to China, by force if necessary. But so far, the big escalation, the big bang, has failed to materialize, so to speak."

January 9, 2024
An island-wide warning sounds during a press conference by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Wu. A Chinese satellite has flown over Taiwan's southern airspace – quickly there was talk of a missile. After prolonged threatening gestures on the part of China, there was a nervous reaction to any kind of possible harassment during the election campaign.

Samuel Chen, Taipei resident
"These elections have shown that China is interfering in our politics in a variety of ways. At the same time, you could feel how many people here in Taiwan are interested in politics. I think the good thing is that this election has awakened people's awareness of the crisis. I am concerned because I see that the Chinese Communist Party has more means of interference, including through the Internet and local forces here in Taiwan. "

The regime in Beijing wanted to prevent Lai's election victory at all costs. Now, at least for the time being, China can refer to the fact that Lai was not able to rally an absolute majority of Taiwanese behind him.

Cornelius Dieckmann, DER SPIEGEL:
"This leads to the paradoxical situation that the victory of a China critic here in Taiwan could even lower the temperature in the conflict in the Taiwan Strait by a few degrees, at least for the time being."

However, this woman would like to make one more thing clear to the German audience:

Chen Yu-Shu, Taipei resident""
We Taiwanese are not Chinese. We're different."

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