Tsai Ing-wen rode a tide of discontent over everything from China ties to economic growth to become the island’s first female president and secure a historic legislative majority for her Democratic Progressive Party.
Tsai, 59, a former law professor, won 56 percent of the vote to 31 percent for the ruling Kuomintang’s Eric Chu. Her victory margin was the biggest since Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election two decades ago. The DPP won 68 seats in the 113-seat legislature, gaining its first ever majority and locking the KMT out of power for the first time since Chiang Kai-shek fled with his government across the Taiwan Strait in 1949.
First Female President
Tsai, the island’s first female president, pledged to maintain peace with its giant neighbor China, while China's Taiwan Affairs Office warned it would oppose any move toward independence and that Beijing was determined to defend the country's sovereignty.
The landslide victory was driven by anxiety over stagnant wages, high home price and dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou’s polices of rapprochement with Taiwan’s one-time civil war foes on mainland China. The result poses new challenges to Communist Party leaders in Beijing, who enjoyed warm ties under Ma and could usher in a new round of instability with China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
At a news conference following the vote, Tsai told reporters that the results “…tell me the people want to see a government willing to listen to the people, a government that’s more transparent and more accountable, and a government that’s more capable of solving problems and taking care of the weak. They tell me the people expect a government that can lead this country into the next generation and a government that is steadfast in protecting the country’s sovereignty."