Lai represents an historic third term in power for the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party (DPP) and will replace incumbant Tsai Ing-wenWho is Lai Ching-te?Taiwan’s new president to take officeSee all of our Taiwan coverageLai’s motorcade has just arrived at the presidential office.The ADIZ incursions are part of Beijing’s repertoire of greyzone...

Lai Ching-te expected to use inauguration speech to call for China and Taiwan to pursue peaceLai Ching-te becomes new Taiwan president – follow it liveLai Ching-te has been sworn in as Taiwan’s new president, a role that puts him at the helm of the self-ruled island as China ramps up military and political pressure on Taipei.Lai was sworn in on Monday...

Dali L Yang’s critique of China’s response in the early days of the Covid pandemic is thoroughgoing if academic, while poet Liao Yiwu’s account mixes fact and fiction to extraordinary effectCast your mind back, if you will, to the beginning of the pandemic, before the World Health Organization had coined the term Covid-19. Back then, it was the “Wuhan...

Protectionism in the form of tariffs is justified but the focus will be on whether Beijing retaliatesThe global economy is fragmenting and a new era of protectionism has dawned. Dreams by free marketeers of a frictionless world in which goods and services moved seamlessly from country to country are dead.That was the clear message from Joe Biden’s decision...

Friends and analysts say Lai’s tough upbringing in a working-class family has prepared him well for his next opponent: ChinaThe house itself is a modest, two-storey dwelling on a larger parcel of picturesque land. Mist floats down from the jungled hills behind, settling in the narrow lane that winds towards the rundown remnants of a mine.The only people...

Cannes film festival The 20-year failed romance between a singer and a dodgy music promoter becomes the vehicle for director Jia Zhangke’s latest exploration of China’s momentous recent historyAs so often in the past, Chinese film-maker Jia Zhangke swims down into an ocean of sadness and strangeness; his new film is a mysterious quest narrative with...