Tsai Ing-wen << sy eeng wuhn >> (1956-…) is a politician who in 2016 became the first woman president of Taiwan , an island in the South China Sea . She is Taiwan’s second-ever president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chen Shui-bian , who served from 2000 to 2008, was the first. However, when Chen was in power, the Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party) controlled the legislature. Under Tsai, the DPP holds a controlling majority in the legislature. Before Chen Shui-bian became president, the KMT had been in power in Taiwan for 50 years.
Tsai Ing-wen was born on Aug. 31, 1956, in Fangshan Township, located in Pingtung County in southern Taiwan. By the time Tsai was a teenager, her family had moved to Taipei . Tsai earned a law degree from National Taiwan University in Taipei in 1978. In 1980, she earned a master’s degree in law from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in the United States. In 1984, she earned a Ph.D. degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.
Tsai returned to Taiwan in 1984 and taught law at several universities in Taipei. Beginning in the 1990’s, she helped negotiate Taiwan’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), an international institution that works to expand international trade. Taiwan officially joined the WTO in 2002. In the late 1990’s, Tsai served as a consultant to President Lee Teng-hui .
In 2000, President Chen Shui-bian appointed Tsai minister in charge of the Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees relations between Taiwan and China . In 2004, Tsai officially joined the DPP. In 2006 and 2007, she served as vice premier under Premier Su Tseng-chang. In 2008, she was elected to lead the DPP.
In 2010, Tsai made an unsuccessful bid for mayor of New Taipei City. In 2012, she unsuccessfully ran for president of Taiwan. After the loss, she resigned as chairperson of the DDP, but she was reelected to the post in 2014.
In 2016, Tsai led the DPP to a stunning victory over the KMT, securing the presidency and a majority of seats in the country’s legislature. Much of her political support came from voters disappointed with outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou’s record in government. Voters were particularly dissatisfied with Ma’s failure to bring about promised economic growth and improve living conditions. Tsai was especially popular with younger voters, who saw Ma and the Kuomintang as uninspiring and out of touch. After the DPP suffered losses in 2018 local elections, Tsai stepped down as head of the party. As president, she emphasized the need to firmly maintain Taiwan’s own identity and democratic form of government in the face of pressure from China. Tsai was reelected in January 2020.
