A few days before Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen announced her intention to run for the presidency in 2012, she met members of the foreign diplomatic community at the March 7 launch of the DPP's new think tank – the New Frontier Foundation. More than 20 senior officials from Britain, Canada, France, Singapore, the United States and the EU were eager for Tsai to brief them on the think tank's objectives and operation.

After delivering some welcoming remarks and a keynote address, Tsai and the foundation's president Wu Nai-jen left, clearing the stage for Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim. Wearing no makeup and clad in a black suit, Hsiao faced the foreign dignitaries all by herself.

Hsiao stands out among the DPP's up-and-coming leaders for her intercultural background, cosmopolitan outlook and multilingual skills.

The DPP does not believe in political talent that has been pampered by the party machinery like greenhouse flowers, but prefers the strong, wild variety that can take hardships and fight a combative campaign.

Hsiao, who has served as a legislator in the past, showed in the legislative bi-election in Hualian City that she can put up a good fight. For the first time the DPP got close to defeating the Kuomintang (KMT) in that electoral district, falling just 6,000 votes short of victory.

However, for the DPP Hsiao is valuable first of all for her natural diplomatic talents, not her ability to fight election campaigns.

Diplomatic Professionalism and International Connections

Jeffrey M. Martin, political officer at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), remarks that if the DPP wants to regain governmental power, it first of all needs to present its case and explain its cross-strait and foreign policy strategies. And of all the current DPP representatives, Hsiao Bi-khim enjoys the most amicable relations with foreign political and economic leaders, and it is she who has gained the trust of the DPP top echelons and been authorized to communicate party positions with the foreign community. 

Hsiao was born in Japan to a Taiwanese father and an American mother. She grew up in Tainan, but attended high school and university in the United States. She got involved with the DPP in the U.S. and, upon returning to Taiwan, became deputy director of the DPP's International Affairs Department at the tender age of 25.

Over the next decade she built up the DPP's network of connections in the international community, from Harvard University professor Ezra Vogel, to the U.S. deputy secretary of state, to the prime minister of Thailand... Hsiao has made a lasting impression on Vogel, a former director of Harvard University's Asia Center, who considers her a rare example of a Taiwanese politician with impeccable English and good judgment in international affairs.

Tsai Ing-wen, who has recently declared her intention to run for president in 2012, has given Hsiao a heavy task. She is charged with running the new think tank and drawing up the blueprint for the DPP's return to power. Tsai has declared, "The policies that the think tank develops will be used by the party to convince the people that the DPP is not only an opposition party that watches over the government, but also an opposition party that is able to govern."

But as politicos inside and outside her party have observed, if Hsiao is to become a political leader, she still needs to develop much stronger ambitions.

Rising to power from the grassroots, the DPP transformed itself into the ruling party and subsequently fell from power. Now, what "beef" is it going to serve up? Economic transformation and social justice, international relations and regional security, cultivating party talent that is able to govern, working hard to communicate with the international community – these are among the pressing tasks that face both Hsiao and her party.

Translated from the Chinese by Susanne Ganz