TAIPEI — Taiwan's top two political parties have each nominated a woman for president in 2016, a historic first signaling acceptance of female leadership and kicking off a campaign highlighted so far by clashing views on ties with rival China.
The ruling Nationalist Party on Sunday picked as its candidate Hung Hsiu-chu, a former teacher and the current deputy legislative speaker.
Hung, who supports friendly relations with China, will run against Tsai Ing-wen, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman and an advocate of more cautious relations with Beijing.
Tsai leads in polls ahead of January's election.
Ties with Beijing, long icy but cordial since 2008, have shaped up as a campaign issue.
Voters in Taiwan, which has been democratic since the late 1980s, have never elected a woman as president.
Joanna Lei, chief executive of the Chunghua 21st Century Think Tank in Taiwan, said some younger women struggle to advance in Taiwan. However, she said society accepts the leadership of women over age 50 because they historically ran clans in China, where Taiwan's culture originates.
Women manage 10 government departments and some of Taiwan's top companies. One-third of Taiwanese legislators are female, compared with 13 percent in Japan and 16 percent in South Korea, said Sean King, senior vice president with Park Strategies, a New York-based consultancy firm.
China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists based their government in the 1940s after losing the Chinese civil war to the Communists. China insists that the two sides should eventually reunite, though opinion polls say most Taiwanese prefer autonomy.
Elected in 2008, President Ma Ying-jeou agreed with Beijing to negotiate on the basis that both sides belong to one China, though with different interpretations.
Hung supports a similar understanding with China, but Tsai's party rejects that as a slight to Taiwan's autonomy.