In the nearly one year that she has been Taiwan leader, Tsai Ing-wen has invited public rage against her reforms. Instead of taking measures to facilitate the economic recovery of the island, which she had promised to do while campaigning for the election last year, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party has continuously attacked the opposition Kuomintang in the name of political reform.

The first bill the island legislature passed after Tsai's inauguration was about auditing the "improper assets" owned by political parties, which offered a convenient excuse for the DPP to marginalize Kuomintang and seize its "questionable" assets. Her selective "promotion of justice", which criticizes Kuomintang's rule after 1949 yet goes easy on Japan's occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945), has widened the divide on the island.

Tsai's reluctance to uphold the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, has soured cross-Straits relations, for which the island is paying a high price. Her political ambivalence was followed by the suspension of cross-Straits consultation and communication mechanisms, derailed economic cooperation, and a sharp decline in the number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan.