Taiwan’s President Tsai Left With Rebuilding Job as Premier Steps Down

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s premier resigned Friday, leaving President Tsai Ing-wen to build a new administration just 12 months away from the 2020 presidential election.

Premier Lai Ching-te and the rest of his cabinet formally stepped down at a meeting Friday in Taipei. Tsai is expected to announce a successor at a briefing scheduled for 11 a.m. local time. Su Tseng-chang, who previously served as premier from 2006 to 2007 was expected to take up the post, according to a report in the Liberty Times.

Although the premier is a relatively high-turnover position in Taiwan’s presidential-led political system, the resignation adds to the challenges facing Tsai. Amid the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, Taiwan’s two largest trading partners, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ratcheted up the pressure, calling in a speech last week for talks leading to the eventual unification of both sides.

Tsai rejects China’s claims to sovereignty over Taiwan.

“No matter who Tsai appoints as the next premier, it will be difficult for her administration to improve their performance,” said Jou Jyh-bang, a professor at Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development. “In the year ahead there are external pressures as the U.S.-China trade war is likely to have a negative impact on Taiwan’s economy, and it’s also unlikely she’ll be able to achieve a breakthrough in cross-strait relations. She faces a very tough path to win re-election.”

Tsai’s appointment of a new premier will be key to her chances of keeping power beyond next January’s presidential vote. The new administration will be tasked with winning back public support after Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party suffered a heavy defeat to the China-friendly opposition Kuomintang in local elections in November.

Lai had offered to resign in the immediate aftermath of November’s vote before Tsai persuaded him to stay on.

Whoever ends up succeeding Lai would become Tsai’s third premier since becoming president in 2016. Since the island’s first democratic elections in 1996, the average duration of a premier’s term in office has been 16 months. Lai assumed the post in September 2017, just 16 months ago.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.