Tsai Ing-wen, 66, re-elected for a second term in 2020, is a quiet and shy woman. It has been working these years for a rapprochement with the United States, even if it means provoking the anger of China.
On Wednesday April 5, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen defied Beijing by going to meet the Speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, in California. In the name of the principle of “One China”, established by Beijing, Taiwan and China are not supposed to maintain diplomatic relations since the Americans recognized China from Beijing in 1979. This is what triggered the Chinese military operations that Beijing says it successfully completed Monday, April 10, with the goal of simulating a complete closure of the island.
A woman in politics, in China as in Taiwan; is anything but common. When elected in 2016 with over 56% of the vote, Tsai Ing-wen was not only the island’s first female head of state, but also the first democratically elected female president of an Asian country.
Thatcher and Merkel for models
She is 66 years old, a lawyer, is the daughter of a mechanic. These modest origins also largely explain her admiration for two women who were role models for her: Margaret Thatcher, daughter of a grocer and a seamstress who was Prime Minister of Great Britain for eleven years, and Angela Merkel, in Germany, pastor father and stay-at-home mother, four-time chancellor.
Tsai Ing-wen is lucky enough to have a father who is thrifty enough to pay her for the best universities: she graduated in law from the University of Taiwan, but also from Cornell University in New York. In 1984, at the age of 28, she even obtained a doctorate in economics and political science at the London School of Economics.
Politics ? Not originally planned either. But for Stéphane Corcuff, one of the Taiwan specialists in France, professor at Sciences Po Lyon, it was quickly overtaken by the democratic movement in his country. “She may have originally planned to stay in business, but in fact her political maturity came at a time of a major turning point for Taiwan, the democratization that her mentor, President Lee Teng-hui, from 1990.”
An apparent discretion
From adviser to the president, Tsai-Ing wen became Minister of Continental Affairs in 2000, Deputy Prime Minister in 2006. For her first attempt at the presidential election in 2012, she made social demands and a desire for independence vis-à-vis from Beijing. But the country is not ready and she is beaten by the nationalist candidate of the Kuomintang. In 2016, she was finally elected at a time when Donald Trump came to power in the United States. The two heads of state will have a telephone exchange which will provoke the ire of the Chinese and retaliatory measures from Beijing vis-à-vis Taipei. This does not prevent him from being re-elected in 2020.
Wherever she goes, this shy little woman intrigues. She is very discreet about her private life, people don’t know her very well. We just know that she is single without children, that she has adopted three dogs and, above all, two cats. “Think Think” and “Ah Tsai” appeared on all of his campaign posters. Very shy character, but not without charisma according to Stéphane Corcuff who met her in a small committee. “Without drawing a daring parallel with our country, people who are on their files can sometimes lack humor or roundness. This is what she has been criticized for a lot. I met her several times, in circles more private, she has a lot of humor. She is simply deadpan. It’s a very intellectual form of humor that suits her very well. In public, she is anything but the example of the populist with jokes easy or loose formulas for the media or for the voters.” All this does not prevent her from standing up today to Beijing to the point that some call her the “pet peeve” of Xi Jinping.