When Taiwanese voters go to the polls in January 2016, they will almost certainly elect the country’s first female leader after Taiwan's two main political parties both nominated women to the top of the ticket.
Hung Hsiu-chu (pictured), vice president of Taiwan’s legislature, was yesterday tapped by the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) to run against the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.
Reporting the news from the renegade province, the Global Times put the words “presidential” and “legislature” in speech marks. Because, of course.
As the Christian Science Monitor points out, the prospect of a woman president in Taiwan would be a historic first not just for the island nation, but for Asia as a whole.
“Asia has never had a female head of government who won office without the legacy of a famous husband, father, or brother. It certainly has had models of women leaders, such as Indira Gandhi in India or Corazon Aquino in the Philippines. Like them, two current women leaders, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh and Park Geun-hye of South Korea, rose to power based in large part on the famous name or political connections of a late male relative.”
Hung’s father actually did work in government – the mainland government before he fled to Taiwan in 1946 – but he was later accused of being a communist and persecuted during Taiwan’s notorious White Terror period. After three years in prison, he struggled to find a steady job to support his family. His ambitious daughter received a scholarship to study law and supported herself with a tutoring job before pursuing careers in education and then politics.
Nicknamed ‘xiao la jiao,’ or ‘little hot pepper,’ for her fiery rhetorical style, Hung faces quite a challenge if she is to defeat Tsai in January. The latest polling puts support for Hung at 25 percent compared to Tsai’s 54 percent.
Hung and her party’s pro-China stance urging closer ties with Beijing is one major factor that’s leading voters to support the pro-independence DPP.
In December, the KMT were crushed in local elections and in March 2014 a trade agreement with the mainland signed by the KMT government prompted large-scale protests outside the Legislative Yuan. Popular support for unification with the mainland has declined in recent years, with 61.6 percent of respondents to a poll in May saying that Taiwan and the mainland do not belong to one China, up from 48.1 percent in April 2013.
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