Taiwan’s First Female President Deemed “Extreme” For Being Unmarried

The first female president of Taiwan is angering China with her singledom. According to The New York Times, Wang Weixing, a Chinese military official with the People's Liberation Army, called Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen "extreme" and "emotional" because she was unmarried. In the article posted on the website of the state-affiliated newspaper the International Herald Leader, Weixing wrote that Ing-wen was a “single woman politician” who lacked the “burden of love, family and children” and therefore was more likely to rule in a radical style. In the article, Wang, who is a member of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, which is in charge of contacts with Taiwan, also suggested that she was untrustworthy, questioning her loyalty. “All in all, Tsai Ing-wen has a conspicuous duplicity to her personality and her politicking,” Mr. Wang wrote. “She is doomed to dwell in this contradiction for a lifetime.” The article was quickly denounced by other publications in China as being sexist and a way to discredit Taiwan with many of the mainland news agencies choosing to take the article down. Ing-wen has talked openly about her single status, writing on Facebook in 2012, "In a traditional society, a woman who never marries would be regarded as less whole, but in modern society, what marriage provides is also available outside of marriages, isn’t it?” The former law professor, who took office on Friday after being elected back in January, has also been open about her feelings on China. She has said that she supports Taiwanese independence from mainland China, something that could cause tension. While Taiwan is technically a sovereign state, mainland China or the People’s Republic of China sees Taiwan as being under its authority. In her election day speech though, Ing-wen spoke of a “new era” for democracy and has said she plans on "following the will of the Taiwanese people" when it comes to the island's relationship with China.