Taiwan election: Ruling party candidate wins tightly contested presidential race, upsetting China's ambitions

China's preferred candidate in the Koumintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, lost to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's pro-independence candidate in a closely fought election.

Lai, defeated his rival, New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih of the Koumintang (KMT) party, by just over 7% of the vote after Hou conceded at 8 p.m. local time. Taiwan saw around 69% of voters turnout for the election this year - less than the impressive 75% seen in the 2020 election, which saw 13.6 million people turn out to vote, but more than the 66% that turned out for the 2016 election, according to the Taipei Times.  Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news. 

The victory marks DPP's third successive win over KMT for the first time since Taiwan began democratic elections over 30 years ago - the first time a party has done so, with parties retaining control for no more than 8 years before switching places as voter sentiment swayed between the two major parties.