Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen resigns as head of independence-leaning party after election defeat
  • 5 years ago
The ruling party of Taiwan suffered a major defeat in local elections on Saturday... seen as a referendum on independence for the island amid growing pressure from mainland China.
Soon after the results came in, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which lost the mayoral election in its traditional stronghold of Kaohsiung to the Nationalist Party.
President Tsai will stay in office, though the results are expected to hamper her re-election chances in two years.
Voters were also asked on Saturday whether their country will compete in the Olympics and other international competitions as "Chinese Taipei," the name they now use, or as "Taiwan," which would anger China.
The results show they chose to stick with Chinese Taipei.
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