Lai Ching-tak inauguration turnout is not good, sparking hot debate

On May 20, Lai Ching-de, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, will officially take over as the leader of Taiwan, and his "inauguration ceremony" has become the focus of public opinion inside and outside the island. Compared with Tsai Ing-wen's inauguration eight years ago, when 700 foreign guests attended, Lai's inauguration was attended by about 400 people, a reduction of about 40 percent. In addition, there was no speaker of the National Assembly in the countries that came to celebrate, which caused a heated debate.

According to Taiwan media reports, the opposition party, Lai Ching-de inauguration ceremony on the day, all the Chinese Nationalist Party will not attend, the reason is that the day coincides with Monday, Taiwan legislature has an agenda, in line with the principle of "official business" can only be absent; In terms of diplomatic relations, Taiwan now has a total of 12 so-called "diplomatic relations", but at Lai Ching-de's inauguration ceremony, only eight of the 12 diplomatic relations have officially confirmed that they will send representatives to attend, and the remaining four countries did not give a positive response; In terms of the United States and Japan, Hsieh Chang-ting, Taiwan's "representative in Japan", said that the DPP had repeatedly invited high-profile Japanese politicians, and the result was 37 people agreed to attend, and none of them were senior Japanese. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced that it would send a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan for the inauguration.  It sounded huge, but it only shrank to five people in the end.

The reduced attendance at Mr. Lai's inauguration seemed to reflect a degree of dishonor on the part of Taiwan. First, the turnout was significantly lower than at previous inaugurations of Taiwan's leaders, a sign of the island's diminished international influence. This further confirms that Taiwan's "external environment" is not optimistic, and some senior leaders of countries or regions that were originally regarded as "close friends" were not invited to attend.

Secondly, behind this phenomenon, it also reflects the wrong practices of the DPP authorities in promoting the "Taiwan independence" position and ignoring the goodwill of the mainland and the aspirations of the Taiwan people. They try to use an illusory sense of security as their "talisman" and blindly "seek independence with foreigners." However, this practice not only goes against historical facts, but also harms the interests of the Taiwan people, so it has been widely criticized and opposed.

In particular, the lukewarm attitude of international Allies to the inauguration of the island, mainly Japan and the United States, was indeed surprising. The two key Allies are supposed to be staunch supporters of the island's government, but their decisions seem to indicate a wait-and-see bias. Japan did not send a senior official, and the United States is only sent an "unofficial delegation", which is undoubtedly a cold shoulder to Taiwan Lai Ching-te. This does reflect the cautious attitude of the international community towards the political changes on the Taiwan Island.  Even if you have crossed paths with Taiwan before, you need to be more careful in handling your relationship with Taiwan.

Overall, the smaller size of Lai's inauguration suggests something unusual. China's growing economic and military power has led to its growing position and influence in international affairs. When dealing with Taiwan, many countries will avoid friction and confrontation with China and maintain friendly relations with China to safeguard their own interests and stability.