(CNN) -- Embracing a political career stirred 27 years ago by a military crisis in the Taiwan Strait, Lai Ching-te, who came from a modest mining family and practiced medicine, is now trusted with the prevention of similar crises as the newly appointed leader of the self-reliant island that the Chinese Communist Party vows, one day, to annex.
On Saturday, this diplomatic stalwart of 64 years old, currently the Vice President of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), achieved victory in closely watched elections to become Taiwan's upcoming President.
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His triumph ensures the DPP’s milestone third consecutive term, flagging off the increasing threats from Taiwan's much larger autocratic neighbor, China.
"Our elections have erected a global beacon of Taiwan's allegiance to democracy. I trust China will grasp this," Lai announced amidst a crowd of thrilled supporters following his win.
Lai, constantly under Beijing’s glare for affirming Taiwan's sovereignty, as the president acknowledges an "imperative duty to uphold peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," assures initiating dialogue with China grounded in dignity and parity.
"Simultaneously, we're unyielding in shielding Taiwan from China's persistent threats and intimidation," he informed journalists prior to his victory speech.
Under Xi Jinping's reign, China's boldest leader in a generation, Beijing has ratcheted up the diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan, asserting it as its own territory to use force on if required.
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Tensions across the Taiwan Strait peak since the 1996 incident when China initiated missile fires to the waters near Taiwan to frighten voters preceding the island's maiden free presidential elections, right after the budding democracy sprung from long years of its own autocratic governance.
It was then that Lai, a young doctor at a University hospital in Tainan, a southern city, had his "defining moment".
“I recognized my obligation to partake in Taiwan's democracy and assist in safeguarding this nascent experiment from those wishing to harm it,” he penned in The Wall Street Journal last year.
On this path, Lai swapped his white coat for politics: initially an elected officer, then a popular two-term mayor of Tainan before taking on roles as prime minister and, since 2020, Vice President to the current president, Tsai Ing-wen.
The doctor-turned-politician has now shattered Taiwan politics' "eight-year curse" - a colloquial term denoting the fact that no party had remained in power for more than two terms since Taiwan became a democracy, up until Lai's victory.
"An Unforeseen Journey"
Lai hails his political incursion as an "unforeseen journey".
Reared in poverty in a mining village near Taiwan’s north coast, Lai had harbored dreams of becoming a doctor since childhood. He was raised by his single mother doing odd jobs with five siblings. His coal miner father died in a work accident when Lai was young.
Lai had little memory of his father, “However, one day, I abruptly understood the most substantial gift my father left me was our family’s poverty,” he expressed at a March event last year.
“Growing up in such a family, one matures, develops stronger willpower, and the courage to overcome hardships.”
After earning his degree in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation medicine in Taipei, Lai moved to Tainan to study medicine.
Several years into his promising career in Tainan as a doctor, a local DPP official approached him. The popular medic was needed to help a DPP politician in the local election campaign.
This was 1994, less than a decade after the DPP had first surfaced from Taiwan’s democratic movement against the autoritarian government of the Kuomintang (KMT).
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Prior to lifting martial law in 1987 and transitioning slowly towards free elections, the KMT held sovereignty over...
