Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

Taiwan’s President Is Running Out of Options

Lai Ching-te is battling internal strife while navigating an unpredictable trade war with Washington.

July 30, 2025 at 7:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Lai Ching-te is running out of options.
Photographer: Yu Chen Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

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We all know President Donald Trump likes winners — the problem for Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te is that he looks like a man running out of options. It’s an unenviable position to be in, with the threat of punishing tariffs hanging over him.

Domestically, Lai is dealing with the fallout from a bruising vote that will embolden the self-ruled island’s pro-Beijing opposition. Globally, he’s navigating a trade war, with no assurance of success. This puts his government in its weakest position since he took office last year.