Feminists in China are embracing Taiwan’s presidential front-runner Tsai Ing-wen as a role model in a country where the last woman leader was the empress dowager more than a century ago.
If elected, Tsai, the leader of Taiwan’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), will be the first woman president of the Chinese-speaking world. Earlier this month, she topped the last opinion poll before a polling blackout began ahead of the Jan 16 elections.
Tsai’s victory “will be a source of great encouragement for feminists on the mainland,” said Zeng Jinyan, a Chinese activist who has written about women’s rights.
“In terms of the political participation of women in the Chinese world, she has set an example and is a role model.”
Zeng said she hoped that Tsai’s victory would lead to co-operation and exchanges between feminists on the mainland and in Taiwan.
“When I watch her speeches, I think she has many feminist ideas,” said Wu Rongrong, a women’s rights activist. “To be a female leader, I think it’s an admirable thing.”
Democratic Taiwan, viewed by Communist Party rulers in China as a renegade province, has made some of the greatest strides in women’s rights in Asia.