Premier-designate William Lai (賴清德) is a physician-turned-politician who since 2010 has been mayor of Tainan, a southern stronghold for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
A native of what is now New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), Lai studied at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School before earning a bachelor of science degree from National Taiwan University’s School of Physical Therapy.
He then attended National Cheng Kung University and received certification as a nephrologist.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
He later received a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health while serving as a legislator.
Lai entered politics in 1996, when he was elected a representative of the then-National Assembly.
In 1999, he ran for legislator and was re-elected several times until 2010, when he ran for Tainan mayor.
Dubbed the “No. 1 mayor” by local media after placing first in several support polls for policies passed under his administration, Lai’s popularity — a TVBS poll conducted late last year put his approval rating at 55 percent — has prompted local observers to mention him as a possible presidential contender.
Staff have said that Lai is a “complete workaholic” who holds himself to high standards and expects perfection, adding that his looks have also helped his political aspirations.
Known for his staunchly pro-independence views, Lai, 57, has repeatedly voiced support for Taiwan’s independence in media interviews and city council meetings.
As made evident by an incident in 2011 — in which he rejected and questioned the legality of a proposal to allocate construction funds to city councilors based on the size of their constituencies — he is not afraid of confrontation.
In 2015, Lai faced the greatest crisis of his political career for refusing to attend Tainan City Council meetings following the indictment of then-council speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) for vote buying during the 2014 election.
At the time, Lai vowed to boycott all city council meetings until corruption cases against Lee, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, were concluded, saying that Tainan’s pride as the mecca of Taiwanese democracy had been marred by Lee, whose position as a councilor was in question.
In August of that year, the Control Yuan impeached Lai for “gross negligence” for his boycott of the council meetings, followed in November by a reprimand from a Judicial Yuan commission for failing to attend council meetings for more than 200 days.
His support rating also took a hit during a dengue fever epidemic in 2015, when Tainan was the epicenter of the outbreak, which also spread to Kaohsiung and Pingtung County.
However, he recouped his support ratings by presiding over rescue efforts for residents of the Weiguan Jinlong complex, which collapsed during an earthquake on Feb. 6 last year.
Lai’s ability to govern, as well as his achievements as mayor, have been greatly applauded by the DPP and society in general.
Lai has strong support from the public and his faction in the DPP, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, adding that he expected Lai to become a “battle premier,” a term that has been used by the media to describe a premier who would help the ruling DPP win elections.
“Lai should be preparing for next year’s mayoral and county councilor elections, so he is probably a battle premier,” Ko said.
In June, Ko said that Lai, an internal medicine physician, is used to “acting slower” than him, a former National Taiwan University Hospital surgeon.
“There are merits to standing firm and doing things steadily,” Ko said yesterday, adding that he is actually on good terms with Lai, especially as they both have medical backgrounds and can “speak the same language using medical terms.
Translated by staff writer Jake Chung
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia and Bloomberg
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS