China's feminists hail expected election of Taiwan's Tsai

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen greets supporters at the end of a campaign rally in Wuchi district, Taichung city in central Taiwan January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

BEIJING (Reuters) - Feminists in China are embracing Taiwan's presidential front-runner Tsai Ing-wen as a role model - in a country where the last woman leader was the empress dowager more than a century ago.

If elected, Tsai, the leader of Taiwan's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), will be the first woman president of the Chinese-speaking world. Earlier this month, she topped the last opinion poll before a polling blackout began ahead of the Jan. 16 elections.