William Lai Ching-te begins term as Taiwan's 8th president

William Lai Ching-te began his term as Taiwan's eighth president after taking the oath early Monday, succeeding the island nation's only woman chief executive, Tsai Ing-wen.

Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's former representative to the US, also took the oath as vice president.

Lai, 64, was elected in January to succeed Tsai.

He won with around 40.5% of the vote in the presidential race, with a turnout of 69.24%. This was out of roughly 19 million registered voters on the more than 23-million-strong island, which sits across the Taiwan Strait south of mainland China.

China despises Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which lost its majority in the regional legislative assembly to the opposition Kuomintang.