Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a
Taiwanese politician who is the
president-elect of the
Republic of China, the first woman elected to the office. She is also the first president-elect to be of
Hakka and Aboriginal descent (1/4
Paiwan from her grandmother), first
unmarried president, and the first to have never held an elected post. She will become the second female head of state in East Asia after current
President of South Korea Park Geun-hye, and the first female head of state in East Asia with no relation to a former head of state. She is the incumbent chairwoman of the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and was the party's presidential candidate in the
2012 and
2016 presidential elections. Tsai previously served as party chair from 2008 to 2012.