Incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, 63, is seeking re-election on January 11. The law scholar-turned-politician was elected as the self-governing island’s first female leader in January 2016, after winning 56.1 per cent of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, her centrist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favours Taiwan’s independence, also formed a majority in parliament for the first time in the island’s history.
The 2016 victory can be attributed to the people’s discontent with the Beijing-leaning policies pushed by then president Ma Ying-jeou ofthe right-wing China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from2008 to 2016.
Once elected, Tsai faced a rocky political road ahead.
Domestically, to improve social fairness and justice, she would have to push painful reforms to tackle issues like a near-bankrupt pension system and working conditions, among others.
The reforms prompted personal attacks on Tsai, a treasured daughter of a wealthy family in southern Taiwan.
“As I’m now the president, I should never give up halfway. I’m determined to complete all [the reforms],” she said at a televised youth forum on December 4, urging young voters to give her four more years. Taiwan presidents have a two-term limit.
During her first presidential term, the pet-loving singleton won over young fans by being open to trendy topics. Being interviewed by popular YouTubers, she tried to encouraged their hundreds of thousands of young followers normally apathetic towards politics to get involved.
To boost the international visibility of her politically isolated island, Tsai invited many popular foreign YouTubers to spend one night at the Presidential Office building as her special guest.
She even teaches English online in a lively way. The two Chinese characters for her name “Ing-wen” also amusingly stand for”English” in Mandarin. With a PhD in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Tsai served from the late 1990s as a senior adviser to the government on relations with China. She then chaired Taiwan’s top government agency dealing with Beijing from 2000 to 2004 and served as vice premier from 2006 to 2007.
Tsai in 2008 became the first woman to head a major political party in Taiwan, leading the then opposition DPP until 2012 when she lost the presidential race. She chaired the DPP again from 2014 to 2018.
In June, when the DPP designated her again as the presidential candidate, the seasoned politician vowed to get re-elected and help the DPP take more than half of the 113 parliament seats.
Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections are scheduled to beheld on January 11. — dpa
Yu-Tzu Chiu
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