Taiwan just elected its first female president

Tsai Ing-wen
(Image credit: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

Tsai Ing-wen won Taiwan's presidential election Saturday. The Democratic Progressive Party candidate will be the first woman on the island to hold the office, The New York Times reports.

She has vowed to support maintaining the status quo in Taiwan's relationship with China, rather than pushing for more formal independence, as her party traditionally has. Tsai scored nearly 60 percent of the vote, Time reports, easily defeating Kuomintang candidate Eric Chu.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.