In his tackle on Tuesday, Lai – the person Beijing manufacturers as a troublemaker – made no point out of mainland China or cross-strait relations, an omission that observers noticed as a calculated departure from his usually assertive rhetoric on Beijing and Taiwan’s self-governing standing.
Lai additionally prolonged an olive department to the island’s opposition events – the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller opposition Taiwan Individuals’s Occasion – by providing to temporary their leaders on nationwide safety issues.
It was a noticeable shift in tone.
Since taking workplace on Could 20 final 12 months, Lai has repeatedly used main public addresses to claim that Taiwan and the mainland “are usually not subordinate to one another” and described Beijing as a “hostile overseas pressure”.
However on Tuesday, Lai solely talked about Beijing when requested by reporters.