In his address on Tuesday, Lai – the man Beijing brands as a troublemaker – made no mention of mainland China or cross-strait relations, an omission that observers saw as a calculated departure from his typically assertive rhetoric on Beijing and Taiwan’s self-governing status.
Lai also extended an olive branch to the island’s opposition parties – the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller opposition Taiwan People’s Party – by offering to brief their leaders on national security matters.
It was a noticeable shift in tone.
Since taking office on May 20 last year, Lai has regularly used major public addresses to assert that Taiwan and the mainland “ are not subordinate to each other ” and described Beijing as a “hostile foreign force”.
But on Tuesday, Lai only mentioned Beijing when asked by reporters.