LAI Ching-te - who China sees as a "troublemaker" separatist - has won Taiwan's presidential election and called it a historic "victory for democracy".
Lai's Democratic Progressive party (DPP), which rejects China's territorial claims to the island, has secured an unprecedented third term - a result likely to infuriate Beijing and send tensions spiralling.
Lai, who is the current vice president, will now replace Tsai Ing-wen, who has served the limit of two terms.
"I want to thank the Taiwanese people for writing a new chapter in our democracy. We have shown the world how much we cherish our democracy. This is our unwavering commitment," he said.
"Taiwan has achieved a victory for the community of democracies."
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Lai added that he is "determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threat and intimidation from China".
The new leader accumulated five million votes and became the first presidential candidate to do so, local broadcasters announced.
Ballots have been counted from 95 per cent of polling stations across Taiwan as Lai emerged as an impregnable lead and his competitors conceded.
The Taiwanese election result is set to chart the trajectory of relations with China over the next four years.
At stake is the peace and stability of the 110-mile-wide strip of water between the Chinese mainland and the self-governed island, which is claimed by China as its own.
However, Lai stated that he hopes to restore "healthy, orderly exchanges with China".
"We hope that China will understand that only peace benefits both sides," he added.
Lai also commended Taiwanese voters for successfully "resisting efforts from external forces" to influence the election, hinting at China, in order to freely selected "their own president".
Ahead of the elections, China chillingly told Taiwanese voters that the election was "a choice between war and peace".
In his New Year's address, Xi Jinping vowed that Taiwan’s “reunification” with the “motherland” is a “historical inevitability” - and he was willing to take it by force.
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His country has been carrying out ever-more regular invasion rehearsals around the island of 24 million.
Beijing strongly opposed Lai's presidential campaign as both he and former president Tsai Ing-wen reject China's sovereignty claims over Taiwan, a former Japanese colony that split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949.
They have, however, offered to speak with Beijing, which has repeatedly refused to hold talks and branded them separatists.
Beijing had favoured the more China-friendly Nationalist Party, KMT and its candidate, Hou Yu-ih, who promised to restart talks with China.
The United States, which is bound by its laws to provide Taiwan with the weapons needed to defend itself, has pledged support for whichever government emerges.
However, the nation is feared to be a major flashpoint between the US and Beijing - with a potential invasion forcing the US to abandon the island or face a full-scale war with China that could spiral into World War Three.
For Tony Chen, a 74-year-old retiree who voted in Taipei in the hour before the polls closed, the election boiled down to a choice between communism and democracy.
"I hope democracy wins," he said.
Stacy Chen, 43, said she has always voted for DPP because "Taiwan is an independent country".
She said she wanted her son to grow up in a country "that is separate from China".
Apart from tensions with China, the election largely hinged on domestic issues, such as a slowed economy, housing affordability, a yawning gap between rich and poor, and unemployment.
