Taiwan elects parliament speaker ruling party views as pro-China

TAIPEI–Taiwan’s parliament on Thursday elected a former presidential candidate for the largest opposition party as its new speaker, who will be responsible for hosting visiting foreign lawmakers and who the ruling party has said is pro-China.

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Ching-te last month won the presidential election but the party lost its majority in parliament. China, which claims Taiwan as its own despite the objections of the government in Taipei, views the DPP as separatists.

Under Taiwan’s presidential system of government, it is the president who appoints the premier, though with no parliament majority now the DPP will have to work with the opposition to get its legislative agenda passed.

Han Kuo-yu, from the largest opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) and who badly lost the presidential election to the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen in 2020, won the election for the speakership.