President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ranked ninth on Forbes magazine’s list of the most powerful women in the world, moving up 28 spots from last year’s ranking.
Forbes highlighted that Tsai became Taiwan’s first female and unmarried leader in 2016, and was re-elected last year with more than 57 percent of the popular vote.
The magazine said her re-election was a “rebuke to Beijing’s efforts to control the island.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Tsai has made protocol-breaking overtures to the US, which has created tensions with China, it said.
Forbes commended her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and her efforts in stimulating the economy with initiatives focused on biotechnology, defense and green energy to make Taiwan “an indispensable member of the world.”
Tsai made the list for the sixth-straight year since her first listing in 2016, when she was ranked 17th. Last year, she was 37th.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) president and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰), who was born in Tainan and migrated to the US as a child, ranked 49th on this year’s list.
Under Su, who trained as an electrical engineer, AMD’s stock price has risen more than 25-fold, Forbes said, adding that the company made one of the greatest turnarounds in the technology sector in the past few years.
US novelist and philanthropist Mackenzie Scott topped the list, after she in 2019 pledged to give away half of her wealth.
Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has thus far donated about US$8 billion to more than 500 nonprofit organizations, including US$2.74 billion granted to 286 groups in June, the magazine said.
US Vice President Kamala Harris ranked second, after she early last year was the first black and Asian-American woman to assume the second-highest office in the country, it said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
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