TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Joe Biden and Taiwanese President-elect Lai Ching-te have more in common than just being former vice presidents.
Biden, 81, could be heading toward the end of his fourth year in office, and Lai, 64, starts his first on Monday. Both men desire de-escalation in cross-strait tensions with China while defending Taiwan’s sovereignty and dealing with political problems at home.
While the United States was focused on the 2024 Republican presidential primary caucuses in Iowa, Lai won Taiwan’s presidential election in January by 7 percentage points, or 915,000 votes, arguing his campaign was a “fight for the survival of the country.” Although he retained the presidency for Taiwan’s center-left party, the Democratic Progressive Party, over the historically powerful center-right to right-wing party, the Kuomintang, he did not receive a majority of the vote nor did his party gain …