Taiwan’s Presidential Office slammed the United Nation’s agency representing the empowerment of women – UN Women, after the international body lumped Taiwan in with China in a survey released recently on women’s participation in politics.

UN Women didn’t even count Taiwan among nations with a woman as head of state, claiming that only 20 countries had a woman as head of state. The Presidential Office corrected this on a graphic tweeted by the spokesperson yesterday, March 13.

Hello @UN_Women: If you really want to empower women around the world, you may need 2 things: 1) NEW GLASSES so you can see past your prejudices; 2) MORE COURAGE so you can face reality & acknowledge #Taiwan’s widely admired head of state, President @iingwen! pic.twitter.com/U58tzGoCpZ — Taiwan Presidential Office Spokesperson (@TaiwanPresSPOX) March 13, 2020

As can be seen on the Twitter post, the Presidential Office Spokesperson suggested the UN agency put on a new pair of glasses in order to see past their prejudices, and have more courage.

Taiwan has had a female head of state since President Tsai Ing-wen was elected to office in the democratic state in 2016. Tsai was returned to power with overwhelming support in 2020, winning a record number of votes for any presidential candidate in the history of the country.

As well as a female head of state, 41.59% of legislators in Taiwan are women, which constitutes the highest level of women’s participation in politics for any country in Asia, and the 9th highest in the world.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) also expressed dissatisfaction with UN Women, saying that they had ignored Taiwan’s outstanding achievements in women’s political participation, and improperly represented Taiwan and China as a single entity.

#Taiwan is missing from this map of countries with female leaders. President @iingwen was recently reelected by a clear majority. @UN_Women should recognize her governance of a free & prosperous democracy. pic.twitter.com/W4OXIDTrZq — 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) March 13, 2020

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