meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Daily Signal

How Taiwan’s New President May Change His Country’s Tense Relationship With China

The Daily Signal

The Daily Signal

Government, Daily News, News, Politics

4.81.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

F-16s flew overhead, marching bands played, and singers entertained with cultural performances during Taiwan’s presidential inauguration on Monday.  The inauguration of President Lai Ching-te was “quite the party,” Asia analyst Michael Cunningham tells “The Daily Signal Podcast,” after attending the event in Taiwan.  The new president has a challenging job in front of him as the country continues to face threats of hostility from China.  Lai’s inaugural speech was overall “probably the most direct and the hardest-line inaugural address we've seen towards China yet,” says Cunningham, who serves as a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. (Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.) The new president likely angered leaders in Beijing, according to Cunningham, when during the speech he said the Republic of China—Taiwan—and the People's Republic of China are “not subordinate to each other.” While Cunningham calls this statement “common sense,” it is also “not something that you say generally if you're the president of Taiwan” because China interprets this as a “two-China philosophy,” when China actually considers Taiwan a part of the mainland. Ultimately, Cunningham says Lai is expected to seek to preserve the status quo between China and Taiwan. Cunningham joins the show to discuss where the relationship between China and Taiwan stands and whether America’s relationship with Taiwan is expected to change under Lai’s presidency. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the Daily Signal Podcast for Wednesday, May 22nd. I'm Virginia Allen.

0:11.0

Taiwan officially has a new president.

0:14.5

Earlier this week, President Lai was inaugurated as the next and new president of Taiwan.

0:21.2

Heritage Foundation Research Fellow in the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center,

0:26.0

Michael Cunningham was in Taiwan for that inauguration and he joins us in just a moment from the other side of the world to explain exactly what he

0:35.4

saw during that inauguration and how this new president is going to navigate the

0:41.1

situation amidst ever-growing tensions with China.

0:45.0

Stay tuned for that conversation after this.

0:48.0

So what is going on with Ukraine? What is this deal with the border? How do you feel

0:57.9

about school choice? These are the questions that come up to conservatives sitting

1:02.1

at parties at dinner at family reunions.

1:05.8

What do you say when these questions come up?

1:08.6

I'm Mark Eine, the host of the podcast for you.

1:11.8

Heritage Explains brought to you by all of your friends. of the day

1:25.2

and break them down in a way that is understandable so check out Heritage

1:29.9

explains wherever you get your podcasts.

1:32.4

The Heritage

1:34.2

Foundations Michael Cunningham joins us now. Michael thanks so much for

1:38.0

being here. Thanks for having me. You I know are in right now, but you were in Taipei for the inauguration.

1:46.6

Explain a little bit what the atmosphere was like.

1:49.8

Take us to Taipei on inauguration day.

1:52.0

What did you see? Yeah, so that it was quite the party to be honest. We saw huge

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Daily Signal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Daily Signal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.