Taming the dragon

As tensions with China grow, President Tsai Ing-wen seems the best bet to ensure that Taiwan’s vital interests are protected

- AJISH P. JOY

On December 2, 2016, Tsai Ing-wen, who was barely a year into her first term as president of Taiwan, made a bold diplomatic gambit. She picked up the phone and made a call to Donald J. Trump, the president-elect of the United States. The two leaders spoke for about 10 minutes. None of her predecessors had dared to make such a move since January 1, 1979, when president Jimmy Carter severed normal ties with Taiwan and granted China full diplomatic recognition.

China had failed to anticipate Tsai’s move, and all hell broke loose in Beijing within hours of the call. The Global Times, a tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party, called for a rapid buildup of strategic nuclear stockpile and termed Trump’s core team “pigs” for facilitating the conversation. From Tsai, however, the message was clear. She might be a soft-spoken policy wonk, but when it comes to her country’s security, she would not budge an inch.

Tsai has always been an unusual politician. Born on August 31, 1956, in a Hakka family—one of Taiwan’s ethnic minorities—she was not a career politician. Nor did she have any family connection to politics. Her father was an automobile mechanic turned real estate developer. He wanted her to study law so that she could help him manage the family business. But he also expected her, as the youngest daughter among his nine children, to take care of him when he grew old. “I was not considered a kid that would be successful in my career,” She told Time in an interview.