President resigns as party leader after election loss

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses in which voters chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island. Concerns about threats from rival China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, took a backseat to more local issues in the elections. Tsai had spoken out many times about “opposing China and defending Taiwan” in the course of campaigning for her party. But the party’s candidate Chen Shihchung, who lost his battle for mayor of Taipei, only raised the issue of the Chinese Communist Party’s threat a few times before he quickly switched back to local issues as there was little interest.

Tsai offered her resignation on Saturday evening, a tradition after a major loss, in a short speech in which she also thanked supporters.

“I must shoulder all the responsibility,” she said. “Faced with a result like this, there are many areas that we must deeply review.”