Tsai Ing-Wen’s Balancing Act

All eyes are on Tsai Ing-wen today as she takes office as Taiwan’s first female president, but Beijing in particular will be watching closely to see how Tsai transforms her party’s independence-leaning rhetoric and her contrasting promise to preserve the status quo into policy towards China. 

Tsai’s actions must balance the goal of preserving stable cross-strait relations in the face of added pressure from Beijing with the interests of a Taiwanese public, who increasingly see themselves as separate from the mainland. At the same time, Tsai must figure out how to fix Taiwan’s floundering economy, as citizens grow wary of too much dependence on China.