Lai Ching-te has been sworn in as Taiwan’s new president, urging China to “cease their political and military intimidation against Taiwan” and to keep the world free from the fear of more war.
Lai was inaugurated on Monday morning at the Japanese-colonial-era presidential office in central Taipei, taking over from Tsai Ing-wen, whose eight years in power saw a sharp deterioration in relations with Beijing.
China claims democratic Taiwan as a province, and has called Lai, 64, a “dangerous separatist” who will bring “war and decline” to the island. The Chinese Communist party has never ruled over Taiwan, but Xi Jinping has declared that what he terms “reunification” is “inevitable”.
Why is it important to mention the presidential office’s heritage?
I don’t know, but I’m glad I decided to find out what it looks like, because it’s super cool.
A question for the Guardian, not OP. But some quick googling shows it being refereed to that way is common at least in English reporting. Not sure how its referenced in Taiwan.
In Taiwan we just call it 總統府, which translates to “the presidential office”. It’s true that it is a Japanese-colonial-era building, but I only ever heard it referenced in historical context, like in a tour or a textbook.
Fun fact: there are also some Spanish and Dutch buildings remaining in Taiwan. They were the first official colonizers before the Ming-dynasty took over.
Anglos like to talk about things like “Number 5”, “Westminster”, “Whitehall”, “The White House”, etc, maybe it’s from there.
And while in Germany we wouldn’t ever refer to the President or their office as anything but “The President”, the residence is definitely Bellevue Palace. As in “The President received guest at <location>” will never be filled in with “their office”. If you said “the office” people might think it’s the boring building in the front with all their staff.
Taiwan’s presidential office not having a proper name (that I know of) Algo journalists then feel a strong urge to describe it, I’d say. And it’s indeed notable.
Bellevue Palace looks like a better White House tbh
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