Taiwan’s New Leader Inherits a Mess

The island’s economy is deeply intertwined with China’s.

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By Bruce Einhorn

January 21, 2016 at 7:51 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the January 25, 2016 issue of businessweek.

It was a total victory for Tsai Ing-wen. Not only did the Taiwanese opposition leader trounce the candidate of the ruling Kuomintang on Jan. 16 to become the island’s first female president but voters also rewarded her Democratic Progressive Party with its first parliamentary majority.

Even as she celebrated, Tsai was addressing worries that her party’s pro-independence stance would hurt the economy by alienating its biggest trade partner, China. “I won’t provoke, and there won’t be any accidents,” she told supporters on election night.