Tsai Ing-wen

Early Life and Academic Career (1956–2000)

Tsai Ing-wen was born in Taipei in 1956; her family roots are in Fangshan Township, Pingtung County, and her parents ran an auto repair shop in Taipei. She graduated in law from National Taiwan University in 1978, then studied in the United States and Britain, earning a Master of Laws from Cornell University in 1980 and a PhD in law from the London School of Economics in 1984, specialising in international trade law and competition law.

Back in Taiwan she taught law at National Chengchi University (1984–1990) and Soochow University (1991–1993), and international business at National Chengchi University (1993–2000). From the late 1980s she took part in Taiwan's trade negotiations, and from 1992 to 2000 she was chief legal adviser in Taiwan's negotiations to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization; Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002.

Cross-Strait Affairs: the National Security Council and the Mainland Affairs Council (1994–2004)

Tsai was a senior adviser to the Executive Yuan's Mainland Affairs Council from 1994 to 1998 and to the National Security Council from 1999 to 2000. According to Chang Jung-feng, then deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, in a 2022 interview with the Liberty Times, Lee Teng-hui set up a group on "strengthening the Republic of China's status as a sovereign state" in August 1998, and on Chang's recommendation Tsai, a lawyer then working at the council, was put in charge; its report was delivered in May 1999. On 9 July 1999, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, Lee described cross-Strait ties as a "special state-to-state relationship".

After Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency in 2000, Tsai became chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council, serving until 2004.

Joining the DPP and Party Leadership (2004–2016)

Tsai joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 2004, served as an at-large legislator from 2005 to 2006 and as vice premier from 2006 to 2007. After the DPP lost the 2008 presidential election she was elected party chairperson, serving two terms (2008–2010 and 2010–2012) as the first woman to lead a major party in Taiwan. In 2012 she ran as the DPP's presidential candidate and lost to the incumbent, Ma Ying-jeou. She became party chairperson again in 2014.

After Ma Ying-jeou met Xi Jinping in Singapore on 7 November 2015, Tsai, as DPP chairperson and presidential candidate, issued a statement expressing disappointment: she had hoped Ma would speak about Taiwan's democracy, freedom and the existence of the Republic of China, and about the Taiwanese people's freedom to make their own choices, but "none of these were mentioned".

Presidency (2016–2024)

On 16 January 2016 Tsai was elected Taiwan's 14th-term president with 6,894,744 votes, about 56.1 per cent, becoming its first female president; she took office on 20 May. Beijing held that her inaugural address sidestepped the "1992 Consensus": in a statement that afternoon the Taiwan Affairs Office said she had "mentioned the 1992 talks between the two sides' associations and the reaching of some common understandings", but had "taken an ambiguous attitude on the fundamental question of the nature of cross-Strait relations, which compatriots on both sides care about most, without clearly recognising the '1992 Consensus' and endorsing its core meaning"; "this is an incomplete answer sheet".

After the DPP's losses in local elections in November 2018 she resigned as party chairperson. Responding to Xi Jinping's January 2019 speech marking the 40th anniversary of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan, she said: "We have never accepted the '1992 Consensus'. The fundamental reason is that the '1992 Consensus' as defined by the Beijing authorities is in fact 'one China' and 'one country, two systems'." On 11 January 2020 she was re-elected with 8,170,231 votes, 57.13 per cent, the highest vote total since direct presidential elections began in 1996, and again served concurrently as party chairperson until November 2022.

Cross-Strait tensions rose during her presidency. After US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on 2 August 2022, the PLA Eastern Theater Command held large-scale joint exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, which a Chinese defence ministry spokesman described as "a stern deterrent against US–Taiwan collusion". In April 2023, transiting the United States on a trip to Central America, she met House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California; the Eastern Theater Command then staged the "Joint Sword" exercises in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan from 8 to 10 April. Ten countries severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan during her presidency — São Tomé and Príncipe, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Nicaragua, Honduras and Nauru, in that order — reducing Taiwan's diplomatic allies from 22 to 12.

Tsai left office on 20 May 2024 and was succeeded by Lai Ching-te, also of the DPP.