Saturday, October 11, 2008

Tsai Ing-wen

Tsai Ing-wen is a former Vice of the Republic of China . She is the incumbent chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party .

Early career


Upon graduation from the department of law at National Taiwan University in 1978, she obtained a Master's degree in Legal Science from Cornell University Law School in 1980 and then a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics . Upon her return to Taiwan, she held professorial positions at several universities until 1993 before being appointed to a succession of bodies, including the Fair Trade Commission, the Copyright Commission of the Ministry of the Interior, and the . She was also convener of the Drafting/Research Group on the Statute Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau.

Tsai is one of the chief drafters of the Special state-to-state relations doctrine of President Lee Teng-hui.

Rise in politics


In 2000, Tsai was given the high-profile appointment of chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council. Confirming the widely-held belief that she maintained sympathies, Tsai joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 2004. On January 26, 2006, Tsai was appointed to the post of Vice President of the Executive Yuan, a position commonly referred to as Vice Premier. She concurrently served as chairwoman of the Consumer Protection Commission.

On May 17, 2007, Tsai, along with the rest of the cabinet of out-going Su Tseng-chang, resigned to make way for incoming Chang Chun-hsiung and his cabinet. Premier Chang named Chiou I-jen, the incumbent Secretary-General of the to replace Tsai as Vice Premier. She then served as the chair of TaiMedBiologics, a biotechnology company based in Taiwan.

In Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou's search for his running mate for the , Tsai, a DPP member, was surprisingly suggested. Ma has stated that there are no set criteria for a running mate, that his search will not be defined by sex, occupation, or even political party affiliations.

On May 19, 2008, Tsai defeated Koo Kwang-ming in the , and succeeded outgoing Frank Hsieh as the 12th-term chairperson of the party.

DPP chairmanship


Tsai took office on May 20, 2008, the same day Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated as President. She said that DPP would work to deepen its while defending social justice. She criticized Ma for mentioning closer Cross-Strait relations but nothing about Taiwan's sovereignty.

Tsai questioned Ma's stand on Taiwan's sovereign status. Ma emphasized the importance of the 1992 Consensus and called Tsai an Taiwan independence . Tsai criticized Ma's government for not answering her question and labeling others.

After former President Chen Shui-bian's admittance to illegally funneling past campaign funds overseas, Tsai apologized to the public and also said that the DPP will not cover up for Chen's misdeeds. Tsai has also vowed to weed out any and all corrupt members in the party and has set up a special internal investigative committee for the task. Tsai has been impartial in light of Chen's fraud admittance.

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