Taiwan’s new leader faces China threat and voters left behind by chip boom

Taiwan’s incoming president Lai Ching-te will start his first term on Monday under pressure to raise social spending and tackle deepening economic inequality while at the same time meeting US demands to shore up defences against an increasingly assertive China.

Every Taiwanese leader since the start of free, direct presidential elections in 1996 has taken office with a message aimed at Beijing, which claims the island as its own and threatens to annex it by force if necessary.