London, Dec. 5 (CNA) Readers of the Financial Times have selected Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen as one of the most influential women of 2020, alongside figures such as United States Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Earlier this week, the U.K.-based newspaper published its annual profile series of influential women, which included features on Wuhan lockdown diarist Fang Fang, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, among others.
In addition to its own selection, this year, the paper also asked its readers to nominate their own choices for women who had made a difference in 2020, and on Friday it released its selection of the top 12 figures nominated by readers.
Each of the 12 women were introduced with a quote from a reader.
In the section on Tsai, an unnamed reader wrote that the Taiwanese president had generated enthusiasm in the elections in January, “made an excellent decision to ban arrivals from mainland China early (in the pandemic) and made Taiwan one of the world’s strongest economies this year.”
Politically, according to the reader’s own opinion, Tsai had managed to resist “pressures from Beijing while not offending China, thereby avoiding further escalation in tensions.”
“She also supported same-sex marriage in Taiwan, which is now legal,” the FT cited the reader as writing.
In addition to Tsai, Harris and Ardern, Financial Times readers also cast votes for Ozlem Tureci, chief medical officer at the German vaccine developer BioNTech, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Others on the list included K.K. Shailaja, health minister in the Indian state of Kerala, U.S. politician and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, and U.S. Congresswoman Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez.
The list also recognized late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pop star Taylor Swift, and all working mothers, for balancing multiple roles amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
(By Tai Ya-chen and Matthew Mazzetta)
President Tsai makes it on Financial Times’ list of influential women
