Tsai Ing-wen: A Woman for Taiwan’s Time

Friday, July 12, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

How does one evaluate Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first woman president? If pressed to put it in one sentence I would say: “She took the helm when Taiwan’s democracy was being buffeted by strong geopolitical winds and swirling inner currents, and yet she kept an even keel, stayed the course and advanced the nation.”

This past May, Tsai Ing-wen stepped down after two consecutive four-year terms as Taiwan’s first female president, Throughout, she proved to be competent, steady, and a trend setter.

I have personally known Tsai for over a decade. We first met face to face when I hosted her at the Taiwan “Breakfast Club” in 2011. At that time she was running for president and facing the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) popular incumbent, Ma Ying-jeou.

Without notes, Tsai spoke in English to an overflow mixed crowd of eighty-five ex-patriates and Taiwanese. After presenting her platform for about forty-five minutes, she took a break, and then fielded questions for another hour.

That was impressive, but what impressed me more was that this was not a Business Chamber or Party event. Tsai was willing to get out and meet all types even when the majority could not vote for her. Her prime concern was to make the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) message and goals known to all.

Tsai did not win in that 2012 elections, but she drew a respectable 45.6 percent of the vote. Back in 2008 Ma had won the presidency with an overwhelming 58.45 percent. This time however, he garnered only 51.6 percent and his party lost its veto-overriding majority in the Legislative Yuan. Thanks to Tsai, the DPP was back in the game.

Tsai proved to be resilient. She ran for president again in 2016, and won, drawing 56.12 percent. That victory came on the heels of the Sunflower Movement’s lengthy protest against the Cross Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA), a treaty between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) that was signed in June 2013 but never ratified due to opposition from the Sunflower Student Movement, which rejected the CSSTA on the grounds that the KMT leadership negotiated and attempted ratification in an undemocratic manner.

A growing number of Taiwanese then realized the dangers of having too close economic and trade ties with the PRC. This has been Tsai’s consistent message.

While her 2016 victory was probably Tsai’s most significant achievement; numerous smaller things that she did also impressed me.

For example, in 2015, when serving as a greeter at the wake of former human rights activist, Lynn Miles, I was surprised to see Tsai show up to pay her respects.

Miles had been involved in human rights, Amnesty International and related peace movements in Taiwan since the 1960s but by the time he passed away, he was long retired. Yet Tsai knew of this history and came. I don’t remember any KMT members being in attendance.

Despite her mild and almost shy demeanor, Tsai has also had a lengthy and increasing involvement in political service. She was initially appointed as a trade policy advisor under former KMT president Lee Teng-hui in the early 1990s; her dedicated work there proved instrumental in getting Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. She also helped draft Lee’s state to state doctrine, which gained notoriety in his famed Deutsche Welle interview.

Tsai’s contributions would be recognized by the next president, DPP Chen Shui-bian, and he ap-pointed her Chair of the Mainland Affairs Council in 2000.

Tsai would officially join the DPP in 2004 and surprisingly become its first female party chairperson in 2008, a time when the party reeled from the corruption scandals of the Chen administration. Tsai would nonetheless guide the party free from those scandals and thus be selected as its presidential candidate in 2012.

That year was not the first time Tsai ran for office; she had run for mayor of New Taipei City in 2010 against KMT Eric Chu and lost. Ironically, Chu would be her opponent in the 2016 presidential elections, and she would turn the tables and win.

Tsai has never been a flamboyant politician; her strength has been that she is purposeful, does her homework, and comes prepared. This showed in her increased public popularity.

When running for president in 2012, she got 6,093,578 votes. In her 2016 victory, that increased to 6,894,744 and finally in 2020 when running as an incumbent, her tally broke 8,170,231 votes, the most ever received by any presidential candidate in Taiwan’s history. Her popularity never faded.

On the international scene, Taiwan similarly gained increased recognition under Tsai. Her presi-dency began with a breakthrough phone call from then US president elect Donald Trump. Later she would host another breakthrough with the first European Union delegation to visit Taiwan. These realities and her position that Taiwan and China were separate states would of course consistently draw the ire of China.

Cross-Strait tensions reached their peak in August 2022, with the visit of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives. The PRC not only continued in its saber-rattling but also con-ducted numerous threatening military exercises around Taiwan.

Tsai was also in vogue internationally. She made the cover of Time Magazine in 2015 and was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2020. This helped promote Taiwan’s image and name recognition worldwide.

One questionable item that could be seen as a downside to her presidency was that the PRC re-sumed its poaching of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. Ten were lost during Tsai’s eight years.

However, depending on one’s perspective not bowing to Beijing’s dollar diplomacy could be seen more as a badge of honor and strength in convictions. Tsai refused to bow to any PRC suggestion that Taiwan consider accepting its one country-two systems belief. In her yearly presidential ad-dresses, she always proclaimed the separation of the two nations. And she never bought into the bogus 1992 consensus, which both the KMT and the CCP tried to promote.

There were numerous other areas where Taiwan steadily advanced under Tsai. Taiwan took a leadership role in LGBT rights and approved “same sex” marriage. Transitional justice and stolen state assets also advanced though slowly.

A separate question that always appears when a nation has a female president, is how would she handle military matters. Tsai admits that she chose Margaret Thatcher a former UK Prime Minister as her model.

Thatcher was minister during the UK’s Falkland Islands War; and she was a leader that no one would accuse of being weak or retiring. With such a model, Tsai kept Taiwan’s military strong with an increased budget and a clear policy towards China.

In the health field, when COVID-19 hit the world in 2019, Taiwan was more than ready under Tsai. Thus even with its proximity to the PRC where the virus originated, Taiwan had fewer comparative deaths per population and handled the virus well.

In trade and economics, Tsai continued with former president Lee Teng-hui’s “go south” advocacy and promoted trade development with numerous Southeast Asian nations. Taiwan’s economy never faltered.

A final, minor matter to address is what has been called “thesis gate,” where the legitimacy of Tsai’s doctoral degree had been called into question. Former Taiwan TV talk show celebrity Dennis Peng fled into self-imposed exile to avoid prosecution for calumny and defamation on this.

In reality, “thesis gate” proved to be a tempest in a teapot and a non-issue. Both universities in-volved, namely the London School of Economics and University of London have continued to stand by the validity of Tsai's degree. Certainly, if there had been anything to be gained in Taiwan, the opposition KMT party would have long exploited it.

Tsai’s track recored is clear. Nonetheless, as she steps down, Taiwan is not out of the woods. The current DPP president Lai Ching-te has his hands full with the new legislature. Similarly, the PRC is still there and still covets Taiwan. Still, during the Tsai years, Taiwan never lost ground nor did it take a step backwards. It remained on an even keel while making progress in many areas.

Hats off to Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen.