Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan : An Assessment of the First Administration, 2016-2020

A dispassionate analysis of the public policy and tenure of President Tsai Ing-wen from 2016 to 2020 vis-à-vis domestic and international politics.

Tsai Ing-Wen and Taiwan: An Assessment of the First Administration, 2016-2020 critically examines the public policy and presidency of Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, who first came into office in 2016 and completed a second term in 2024. Enough time has passed since the end of Tsai’s first term in office for scholars, commentators, and observers to have a clear view and understanding of her presidency. Tsai Ing-Wen and Taiwan analytically appraises her first term in office vis-a-vis her economic, social, and political agenda and policies and, ultimately, the implications of those agendas and policies on the national interest of Taiwan and its 24 million citizens. The book answers the many questions concerning whether the president kept the promises she made during the campaign, whether she was able to overcome the challenges her administration faced. Tsai Ing-Wen and Taiwan also looks at her government’s ability to balance the hostilities emanating from the other side of the Taiwan-Strait (China) and the demands and ambiguities of US foreign policy. Finally it assesses whether her administration was in tune with the changing undercurrents of an increasingly shifting society, and if her government’s policies resulted in the better economic outlook of the average Taiwanese.