Taiwan's president has, for the first time, commemorated VE Day in Taiwan at an event attended by foreign dignitaries and diplomats. At a time of renewed geopolitical instability, what was President Lai's key message? Our reporter Rik Glauert spoke to political scientist Wen-Ti Sung, non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
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00:00Why do you think President Lai Ching-de chose to mark VE Day this year and what was he trying to
00:06convey with the event and with his speech? I think the broader context here is really about China
00:12and Ukraine and at the moment when Lai began his speech about VE Day to commemorate World War II
00:18in Europe, it's also the precise moment when Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting Russia
00:25as well and so this goes to the continued emphasis that Lai makes including his speech
00:32about the importance of Taiwan continuing to stand with fellow democracies and that sentiment about
00:39continued partnership with like-minded democracies is particularly valuable at the time when they
00:45may be concerned about geopolitical uncertainty as was perhaps global democratic recession or at least
00:53risk of it. What sort of relationship does Taiwan have with World War II? Well during World War II
00:58Taiwan was a colony of Japan which by extension meant that Taiwan fought alongside Japan and so in that
01:06particular sense I think Taiwan by talking about history of Taiwan in relation to World War II you
01:12can argue that Taiwan is a story that shows how states evolve and that they learn from experience so
01:21rather than framing World War II as necessarily a battle between good guys and bad guys oftentimes more
01:27about framing the possibility of struggle between the good forces and less than good forces of our nature and
01:36how Taiwan itself has gone through that path of evolving from fraternalism into a liberal democracy and that
01:44shows how other states may also consider falling suit as well. It's in that particular sense that actually you see
01:52Taiwan's President Lai talking about in his speech that some formerly accessed countries during World War II
02:00have by now all become 100% democratic states and enjoy lasting peace and prosperity.
02:07It's obviously a very difficult time geopolitically how is Lai trying to position Taiwan?
02:13I think what it shows is that Taiwan still values the logic of value-based diplomacy and that is a democratic
02:20values shared commitment to liberal democracy remain cornerstones of Taiwan's international outreach
02:27and that is why on the important day of World War II's anniversary for Europe Theatre it invites both the
02:34the representative to Taiwan from the UK as well as from the European Union and many others to show up at this
02:42particular speech and to give them the floor as well again to show how Taiwan with its many Western and
02:50European friends and partners they are willing to share the same floor and speak with one voice.