TAIPEI: Lai Ching-te, the presidential candidate for Taiwan’s ruling party, won an election on Saturday that China had framed as a choice between war and peace.

The candidate for Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT), Hou Yu-ih, conceded defeat in the election.

Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which champions Taiwan’s separate identity and rejects China’s territorial claims, was seeking a third term, unprecedented under Taiwan’s current electoral system.