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.

But against the backdrop of soaring tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the demands on Lai to balance Taiwan’s security risks with assurances of safeguarding its independence are greater than on most of his predecessors.

“There have been extensive exchanges about his inaugural address with Washington, and the US has been communicating some guidelines,” said a person familiar with the discussions.

Washington is keen to ensure that Lai will stick to the China policy line of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, who won broad international support for her cautious handling of often turbulent cross-Strait relations, several people in Lai’s Democratic Progressive party (DPP) said.

A US official said the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s quasi-embassy in Taipei, has been in contact with officials in Taiwan about Lai’s inauguration speech and to underscore long-standing US policy on cross-Strait issues.

“In this upcoming term, we’re not looking to shake things up or change things . . . ‘Status quo’ has been our byword,” the official said.

Lai will seek to reassure the US with a commitment to decisively strengthen Taiwan’s defences, including raising military budgets, revamping its military force structure and focusing on cost-effective and mobile weapons systems and more robust civil defence.

But he is also keenly aware of the need to address burning economic concerns among many Taiwanese, especially the young. While Lai’s government intends to raise the defence budget from 2.5 per cent of GDP this year to 3 per cent, members of his team said his top priority would be domestic reform.

Decades of economic policy have focused on supporting Taiwan’s globally leading high-tech industries such as chipmaking, leaving other parts of the economy behind. This has led to growing inequality, with 68 per cent of the population below the average income, a senior DPP official said.

“We need to explain to the US the importance of social solidarity for the sake of our national unity,” the official said.

Lai is likely to struggle building such unity from day one. He was elected with just 40 per cent of the vote in a three-way race in January and lacks a DPP majority in the legislature.

He has pledged to prioritise policies with cross-party support. But hopes for building consensus dwindled on Friday after parliament descended into brawls over opposition proposals to expand its power via bills that would allow the legislature to find government officials guilty of contempt — a criminal charge punishable with prison time. The DPP called such legal changes unconstitutional.

Lai’s policies include a reform of the underfunded national health insurance, an expansion of subsidised childcare and care for the elderly. Beyond social spending, he will also seek to shift economic policy from incentives for certain industries to creating more service sector jobs and stimulating domestic consumption.

“To give these people a sense of wellbeing and security, we need to focus on social investment and build a more universal social security system,” the DPP official said. “There will not be too much pushback against that from the opposition — they may even want to outdo us on spending on that.”

Lai has recruited a number of private-sector executives into his cabinet, most prominent among them JW Kuo, an entrepreneur and chair of semiconductor industry supplier Topco, a departure from Tsai’s preference for academics.

But in the sensitive areas of China policy, national security and defence, the incoming president has retained almost Tsai’s entire team. Her foreign minister Joseph Wu will head up Lai’s National Security Council while NSC head Wellington Koo will become defence minister.

This personnel continuity will offer stability, DPP officials hope, as China has escalated military manoeuvres close to Taiwan’s waters and airspace in recent weeks.

The new president intends to express readiness for dialogue — in line with Tsai’s practice — in his inaugural address in a sign of goodwill to Beijing, which has denounced him as a “dangerous separatist”.

But Lai is also expected to restate principles outlined by Tsai that Taiwan is committed to its democratic system, that the Republic of China — its official name — and the People’s Republic of China should not be subordinate to each other and that Taiwan will resist annexation or encroachment on its sovereignty. Taiwan’s future must be decided in accordance with the will of its people, Lai will add.

Despite maintaining Tsai’s national security personnel and approach to China, some observers believe Lai’s tenure could look very different in practice. He has shown a penchant for political battle during his 28-year career in politics, in stark contrast to Tsai, a controlled, soft-spoken former trade policy official.

“As we deal with the challenges we face, we will also have to find our own voice”, said a senior member of the incoming administration, adding that Lai would “lay out his vision in his own words”.

As mayor of the municipality of Tainan, Lai’s insistence on abolishing slush funds for city councillors triggered a revolt in the local legislature.

On a visit to Shanghai in 2014, he told Chinese scholars that Taiwanese independence was not an idea that originated with the DPP but a long-standing aspiration of the Taiwanese people, and that only if Beijing understood could the two sides find common ground — a bluntness unheard of from other visiting Taiwanese politicians.

In 2017, then Tsai’s premier, he infamously described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence”.

“Lai’s brain is not Tsai’s brain,” said a person who has known the incoming president for many years.

Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Philadelphia police officers swarmed the University of Pennsylvania on Friday night due to a protest on campus.

Chopper 6 was overhead around 9 p.m. as police officers scuffled with some pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the city’s University City section.

Members of the Penn Gaza Solidarity said they were planning to occupy the Fisher-Bennett Hall.

A Penn spokesperson said a group of individuals entered the hall and attempted to occupy it.

“Penn Police, with support from Philadelphia Police, escorted them out and secured the building, taking several individuals into custody. The situation remains active,” said a spokesperson in a statement.

The Action Cam was on the scene as officers could be seen taking some protesters away in handcuffs in the area of 34th and Walnut streets.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were arrested.

Before dispersing just before 11 p.m., demonstrators marched from the campus to the Penn Museum and then to Franklin Field, where commencement ceremonies are being held in the coming days.

Protesters say they decided to take over Fisher Bennett Hall because Penn administrators failed to meet their demands and refused to negotiate in good faith. They want administrators to disclose Penn’s investments, divest from Israeli companies and depend pro-Palestine protesters.

The protest comes a week after police dismantled a two-week encampment on the College Green.

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Workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama rejected joining the United Auto Workers union on Friday, a major setback in labour’s campaign to organise foreign-owned carmakers across the US south.

The National Labor Relations Board said 2,642 votes had been cast against union representation, versus 2,045 in favour. The plant assembles luxury sport utility vehicles, including electric and ultra-luxe Maybach models.

The high-profile defeat is a reversal for the UAW after its landslide victory at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga last month. Union leaders had hoped that vote marked the beginning of a wave of labour gains across the US south.

The Detroit-based union, which represents more than 400,000 active workers, has said it hopes to capitalise on the record 25 per cent pay rises it won for Ford, General Motors and Stellantis employees after a strike last year.

UAW president Shawn Fain on Friday said the union would continue organisation efforts at the Vance, Alabama plant. “This isn’t fatal. This is a bump in the road. We will be back in Vance, and I think we’ll have a different result down the road,” he said.

Mercedes said it hoped its employees continued to view the company as “not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family”.

Lawmakers across the south have used generous subsidies and promises of low-cost, non-union labour to attract foreign carmakers to their states since the 1970s. The union says the so-called “Alabama discount” has helped Mercedes increase its profits 200 per cent over the past three years.

The region’s “right to work” laws give workers the ability to opt out of paying union dues, making it more difficult for labour organisations to support themselves financially.

Union organisers faced far greater resistance at Mercedes than at Volkswagen. After the union announced 70 per cent of the facility’s 5,075 eligible employees had signed union cards, Mercedes replaced the plant’s chief executive, eliminated an unpopular two-tier wage plan that paid longer-serving employees more, and implemented an 11 per cent pay raise.

A double-sided sign hung on the plant’s fence urged workers to simply “vote” on the external public-facing side, but to “vote no” on the inside. Pictures of the sign went viral on social media.

Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University who studies labour relations, called it “a classic anti-union campaign”.

Mercedes previously said it respects employees’ right to organise and was providing workers with the information they needed to make an informed choice.

Local officials also fought the UAW. Alabama’s Kay Ivey, a Republican, was one of six governors who signed a letter calling the UAW “special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by” before the VW election last month. Mercedes was one of the first car plants in Alabama and was widely credited with reviving the state’s manufacturing sector, said University of Alabama professor Michael Innis-Jiménez.

“They are quoting this as the best place to do business because you can pay the workers less,” Innis-Jiménez said. “I think the politicians here are scared that [if the union wins] companies will just stop coming in.”

In March, Alabama passed a state law designed to complicate union organising by denying subsidies to companies that voluntarily recognise a new union.

Despite the loss, the UAW is likely to continue campaigning to organise workers at foreign-owned car plants across the country, Silvia said, but might slow the pace at which it files for representation elections. The union’s next targets may be a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama and a Toyota plant on the outskirts of St Louis, Missouri, Silvia added.