Beijing (CNN) According to an op-ed in an official Chinese state-published newspaper, being an unmarried, childless woman makes Taiwan's newly inaugurated president unfit for her job. 
 
 The lengthy analysis of Tsai Ing-wen published Tuesday by Xinhua linked her single status to her political style and policies. 
 
 "As a single female politician, she has no emotional encumbrances of love, no family restraint, no children to worry about. Her political style and tactics are often emotional, personalized, and extreme," it read. 
 
 As a result, the article declared, Tsai's approach was more short-term. 
 
 "She doesn't care so much about the direction of political strategies, being more concerned with details. She proposes extreme short-term goals, and does not consider long-term goals." 
 
 Story removed 
 
 The original Xinhua story has since been taken down, as well as copies posted on other Chinese news portals. 
 
 But the piece sparked a storm of criticism online, with users pointing to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and former Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi as successful, single Asian female politicians. 
 
 Li Yunlong, a professor at the Central Party School of Communist Party of China, voiced his anger on Weibo -- China's equivalent of Twitter. 
 
 "What does being single have to do with her political views ... isn't it naked discrimination against singleton? Chen Shui-bian (former Taiwan president) is married, but isn't he more extreme? Shouldn't there be a bottom line for political struggles?" 
 
 Others accused state media of being overly sexist and falling ill with " Straight Man Cancer " -- a popular Chinese term that refers to chauvinist, judgmental behavior that belittles women. 
 
 Discrimination increasing? 
 
 JUST WATCHED China releases women's rights activists from detention Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH China releases women's rights activists from detention 01:42 
 
 Under Chairman Mao Zedong, women famously "held up half the sky," but there is a growing sense that Chinese women today face more, not less, discrimination than in the past. 
 
 In 2015, The New York Times reported that women make up fewer than one in 10 board members at the country's top 300 companies. 
 
 And China's state-run media often appears more concerned with women's looks and marital status than equal rights. 
 
 The People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, published an online gallery last year entitled "Beauty with brains." It featured 18 snapshots of female journalists covering the NPC in Beijing. 
 
 And during the Lunar New Year holidays in 2015, a television gala watched by 690 million people included comedy skits mocking overweight and unmarried women. Incensed feminists called for an end to the annual televised extravaganza in an online petition. 
 
 Just weeks earlier, Zhou Guoping, an influential writer, enraged many when he said that "a man can have thousands of ambitions but a woman only one" -- to give birth. 
 
 JUST WATCHED China's Lunar New Year show is bigger than the Super Bowl Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH China's Lunar New Year show is bigger than the Super Bowl 02:27 
 
 Guo Weiqing, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou told CNN that more and more women aren not happy with the gender roles Chinese society ascribes to them, and this year's string of "sexist incidents" reflects some men's concerns that women aren't as "feminine" as they once were. 
 
 "They hope women will return to the way they're supposed to be," he said. 
 
 But judging from many Internet users' comments, many in China would disagree with that opinion and that strong female leaders like Tsai are role models for how women really should be. 
 
 The government in Taiwan did not immediately respond to a request from CNN for comment. 

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Taiwan's new leader has been outspoken in declaring that she has never been married 
 
 An article on Chinese state media that said Taiwan's new leader Tsai Ing-wen has an "extremist style" because she is unmarried has prompted outrage online. 
 
 The opinion piece, published by the Xinhua news agency, said Ms Tsai did not have the "emotional burden" of a family, leading to an "erratic style". 
 
 Chinese social media users largely rallied in support of Ms Tsai, who has been outspoken about her single status. 
 
 She was sworn in on Friday as Taiwan's first female president 
 
 Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's shy but steely leader 
 
 Taiwan: the place to be a woman in politics 
 
 Her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which leans towards independence from China, won January's elections, ending eight years under pro-Beijing President Ma Ying-jeou. 
 
 'More emotional' 
 
 Ms Tsai's singleness was a central focus of a commentary by Wang Weixing, originally published by Xinhua. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Ms Tsai took the presidential oath at a ceremony in Taipei on Friday 
 
 The article has since been removed from Xinhua's website, but can still be found on other news portals and micro-blogging accounts. 
 
 Mr Wang, a senior military officer, pointed to an "extremist political-style development" displayed by Ms Tsai. 
 
 "As a single female politician, Tsai Ing-wen does not have the emotional burden of love, of 'family' or children so her political style and strategies are displayed to be more emotional, personal and extreme," the report in Chinese read. 
 
 It continued that her "erratic behaviour" influenced her political style and advised that she should take that into consideration, rather than "focus on long-term goals" for Taiwan. 
 
 Alex Huang, a spokesman for Ms Tsai, told BBC News that her office had "no comments" in response to the piece. 
 
 'Typical discriminatory behaviour' 
 
 But thousands of Chinese-language social media users have expressed outrage and anger towards the article, which has been reposted by several accounts on China's popular micro-blogging site Sina Weibo. 
 
 Image copyright Facebook Image caption The president once said on Facebook she was "happiest" playing with her cats 
 
 "This was the stupidest and most offensive thing I have read in ages," said a post from a Weibo user from the Chinese capital, Beijing. 
 
 "Many women abroad admire Ms Tsai's tenacity and drive, especially the fact she is strong and independent and does not need a man to rule." 
 
 "If the tables were turned and Ms Tsai was a man, she would be celebrated for being single. This is typical discriminatory behaviour but it still disgusts me," said another user on the site. 
 
 Su Mei Cho, a teacher from Shanghai, left a comment in response to a post that was being circulated on the site: "If Xinhua wanted to criticise Tsai Ing-wen, do it on fair grounds and look at her ability to lead Taiwan and revitalise areas like defence and the economy. 
 
 "What does her private life have to do with the way she governs Taiwan? Taiwanese celebrate her and her strong achievements and I doubt they will care as much about who she decides to date, such trivial writing and opinions expressed in this report." 
 
 Over in Taiwan, netizens on the popular PTT forum were discussing the "poor taste" of opinions expressed towards their leader. 
 
 "Even a woman's singlehood can make the news?" 
 
 "They are probably threatened that a cat lady like Ms Tsai could beat any men she sets her mind to - they are intimidated," said another. 
 
 But not everyone disagreed with the article. 
 
 A user from China's Yunnan province said it was not an attack, and the article was based on facts. He questioned whether it would also be an attack for a psychologist to point out a patient's personality faults. 
 
 Another user from Henan province, central China said the article was all based on public information, and said it was right to use public information to study a politician. 
 
 Reporting by the BBC's Grace Tsoi, Heather Chen and Yashan Zhao. 

 President Tsai Ing-wen is “two-faced” and her single status means that she may be “extreme” politically, a Chinese state media column published on Tuesday. 
 
 The author, Wang Weixing, is the director of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and a scholar at the Academy of Military Science. He said that “[Tsai] is a complicated person who grew up in the twisted Taiwanese society and political environment.” 
 
 “Analysing from a personality point of view, as a single female politician, she does not have the burden of feelings of love, there is no ‘family’ as a constraint, no kids as worries – her political style and executive strategy tends to be emotional and extreme,” he said. 
 
 The director also said: “Ultimately, Tsai Ing-wen’s character is clearly two-faced – politically, her management style is one face, and privately she shows another face. It is very deceiving.” 
 
 The article on Xinhua, originally titled “Exposing Tsai Ing-wen,” has been deleted. However, the article remains available on other Chinese media outlets that have reposted the article under the title “Xinhua: Being single may cause Tsai Ing-wen’s political style to lean towards extremism.” 
 
 ‘Positive dialogue’ 
 
 Tsai was elected as voters rejected closer ties with China. During her inauguration speech last Friday, she called for “positive dialogue” with China. On her first working day on Monday, her government drop charges against sunflower movement activists. 
 
 Beijing warned Tsai on Saturday that it would cut off critical contacts if she did not state her support for “one China,” which encompasses the idea that the mainland and Taiwan are parts of one sovereign state. 
 
 Comments 
 
 comments 

 Taiwan's new president is off to shaky start in the eyes of Beijing, and at least according to one Chinese official more trouble can be expected down the road -- after all, she is a single woman. 
 
 In an editorial published by Xinhua news agency yesterday, Wang Weixing, a Taiwan specialist based in Beijing, personally attacks Tsai Ing-wen, who was sworn in as Taiwan's first female president last Friday. 
 
 "As a single female politician, Tsai Ing-wen does not have the emotional burden of love with no 'family' restraints or children to worry about," Wang writes. "Her political style and strategy tends to be "emotional, personal and extreme." 
 
 Wang continues his sexist pseudo psychoanalysis by theorizing that because of her "erratic behavior" -- also influenced by the fact that her father had more than one wife -- she focuses more on extreme short-term satisfaction, at the expense of long-term goals (like say, being president). 
 
 Perhaps Wang was thinking of Tsai's decision to swap "consensus" for "historic fact" when speaking about the "1992 Consensus" during her inauguration speech last week. Beijing says that Tsai's acceptance of the "1992 Consensus" -- a cross-strait agreement of sorts that declares that there is only "one China," but allows each side to hold a vastly different interpretation of what exactly that means -- is a prerequisite for any future diplomatic talks. 
 
 Wang's editorial has since been deleted from various Xinhua-related sites and from most major Chinese news portals. 
 
 However, it is still all over Chinese social media where it has generated a firestorm of criticism with angry netizens writing in to denounce the sexist attacks made against Tsai. 
 
 "This was the stupidest and most offensive thing I have read in ages," one Weibo user wrote according to the BBC. "Many women abroad admire Ms Tsai's tenacity and drive, especially the fact she is strong and independent and does not need a man to rule." 
 
 Other netizens pointed to successful single politicians, like South Korean President Park Geun-hye and former Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, as examples for why this editorial was so offensively incorrect. 
 
 "What does being single have to do with her political views ... isn't it naked discrimination against singleton? Chen Shui-bian (former Taiwan president) is married, but isn't he more extreme? Shouldn't there be a bottom line for political struggles?" Li Yunlong, a professor at the Central Party School of Communist Party of China, wrote on his Weibo account, CNN reports. 
 
 At home, the editorial is drawing just as much blowback and bewilderment at how the fact that a woman is single could become such an issue. 
 
 "They are probably threatened that a cat lady like Ms Tsai could beat any men she sets her mind to - they are intimidated," guessed another netizen. 

 TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan has inaugurated its first female president. 
 
 Tsai Ing-wen will confront major challenges in her new role, including navigating what seem certain to be increasingly fractious relations with Beijing and rejuvenating the island's flagging economy. 
 
 Tsai took the oath of office Friday at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei before a national flag and portrait of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China that relocated to Taiwan in 1949 as the communists swept to power on the Chinese mainland. 
 
 China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has responded to Tsai's election by intensifying pressure on the island with military exercises, diplomatic moves and cross-border deportations. 
 
 At home, Tsai faces an economy that has fallen into a recession as exports have dropped due to sluggish demand. 

 Beijing (CNN) According to an op-ed in an official Chinese state-published newspaper, being an unmarried, childless woman makes Taiwan's newly inaugurated president unfit for her job. 
 
 The lengthy analysis of Tsai Ing-wen published Tuesday by Xinhua linked her single status to her political style and policies. 
 
 "As a single female politician, she has no emotional encumbrances of love, no family restraint, no children to worry about. Her political style and tactics are often emotional, personalized, and extreme," it read. 
 
 As a result, the article declared, Tsai's approach was more short-term. 
 
 "She doesn't care so much about the direction of political strategies, being more concerned with details. She proposes extreme short-term goals, and does not consider long-term goals." 
 
 Story removed 
 
 The original Xinhua story has since been taken down, as well as copies posted on other Chinese news portals. 
 
 But the piece sparked a storm of criticism online, with users pointing to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and former Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi as successful, single Asian female politicians. 
 
 Li Yunlong, a professor at the Central Party School of Communist Party of China, voiced his anger on Weibo -- China's equivalent of Twitter. 
 
 "What does being single have to do with her political views ... isn't it naked discrimination against singleton? Chen Shui-bian (former Taiwan president) is married, but isn't he more extreme? Shouldn't there be a bottom line for political struggles?" 
 
 Others accused state media of being overly sexist and falling ill with " Straight Man Cancer " -- a popular Chinese term that refers to chauvinist, judgmental behavior that belittles women. 
 
 Discrimination increasing? 
 
 JUST WATCHED China releases women's rights activists from detention Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH China releases women's rights activists from detention 01:42 
 
 Under Chairman Mao Zedong, women famously "held up half the sky," but there is a growing sense that Chinese women today face more, not less, discrimination than in the past. 
 
 In 2015, The New York Times reported that women make up fewer than one in 10 board members at the country's top 300 companies. 
 
 And China's state-run media often appears more concerned with women's looks and marital status than equal rights. 
 
 The People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, published an online gallery last year entitled "Beauty with brains." It featured 18 snapshots of female journalists covering the NPC in Beijing. 
 
 And during the Lunar New Year holidays in 2015, a television gala watched by 690 million people included comedy skits mocking overweight and unmarried women. Incensed feminists called for an end to the annual televised extravaganza in an online petition. 
 
 Just weeks earlier, Zhou Guoping, an influential writer, enraged many when he said that "a man can have thousands of ambitions but a woman only one" -- to give birth. 
 
 JUST WATCHED China's Lunar New Year show is bigger than the Super Bowl Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH China's Lunar New Year show is bigger than the Super Bowl 02:27 
 
 Guo Weiqing, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou told CNN that more and more women aren not happy with the gender roles Chinese society ascribes to them, and this year's string of "sexist incidents" reflects some men's concerns that women aren't as "feminine" as they once were. 
 
 "They hope women will return to the way they're supposed to be," he said. 
 
 But judging from many Internet users' comments, many in China would disagree with that opinion and that strong female leaders like Tsai are role models for how women really should be. 
 
 The government in Taiwan did not immediately respond to a request from CNN for comment. 

 This article is over 2 years old 
 
 Opinion piece says Tsai Ing-wen has an ‘emotional, personalised’ style because she does not have a husband and children 
 
 Chinese news agency: Taiwan's leader is radical because she is single 
 
 The Chinese Communist party’s official newswire is facing a deluge of online scorn and ridicule after claiming Taiwan’s first female president is “extreme” because she is single. 
 
 
 
 Tsai Ing-wen, who has studied at LSE and Cornell University, was sworn in as the self-ruled island’s new president last Friday. 
 
 In her inaugural address, the Democratic Progressive party politician urged citizens to reject prejudice and look to the future. 
 
 Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen vows to reduce dependence on Beijing Read more 
 
 Across the Taiwan strait in mainland China, Beijing’s official propaganda and news agency, Xinhua, appeared to be staring in a different direction. 
 
 An opinion piece published by the International Herald Leader, a Xinhua-run newspaper, suggested Tsai was likely to be obsessed with detail and hold radical views that could encourage her to seek formal independence from China because she was unmarried and had no children. 
 
 “As a single female politician, she does not have the emotional burden of love, of ‘family’ or children. So her political style and strategy tend to be emotional, personalised and extreme,” Wang Weixing, an official from a Beijing-controlled body that handles relations with Taiwan, wrote. 
 
 “When dealing with Tsai, we should bear in mind important factors such as her experience, personality and mindset,” added Wang, from the association for relations across the Taiwan strait. 
 
 Alex Huang, a spokesman for Tsai, told the BBC she would not comment on Xinhua’s chauvinism. 
 
 But the Chinese internet had plenty to say. 
 
 “How dare you attack her personal life!” fumed one user of Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “Male chauvinist pig,” wrote another. 
 
 In an online post, Zhang Hongzhong, a journalism professor from Beijing Normal University, lamented the article as both intellectually flawed and highly offensive to single women. 
 
 “Since Xinhua is a state-run news agency, it will also damage our country’s image,” Zhang added. 
 
 
 
 Amid growing outrage, the piece was eventually removed from the newspaper’s website and replaced with a message that read: “Sorry, page not found.” 
 
 The article is at odds with President Xi Jinping’s professed commitment to gender equality. 
 
 
 
 “We must build up women’s capacity of playing their part in society and the economy, involve women in higher levels of decision making and support them in becoming leaders in political, business and academic fields,” he told a summit at the United Nations last September. 
 
 However, feminists say Chinese security forces have cracked down on their campaigning activities since Xi took power in 2012. Last year celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the UN’s Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 were outlawed. 
 
 There are still no women serving on the Communist party’s elite seven-member ruling council and only a handful anywhere near the top of Chinese politics. 
 
 Additional reporting by Christy Yao 

 People who work closely with her adore her and say she is warm and caring. But it’s hard from the outside to think of any non-career or pre-career aspect to her life. Except for a few grandma references, she presents herself as a résumé and policy brief. 
 
 For example, her campaign recently released a biographical video called “Fighter.” It’s filled with charming and quirky old photos of her fighting for various causes. But then when the video cuts to a current interview with Clinton herself, the lighting is perfect, the setting is perfect, her costume is perfect. She looks less like a human being and more like an avatar from some corporate brand. 
 
 Clinton’s unpopularity is akin to the unpopularity of a workaholic. Workaholism is a form of emotional self-estrangement. Workaholics are so consumed by their professional activities that their feelings don’t inform their most fundamental decisions. The professional role comes to dominate the personality and encroaches on the normal intimacies of the soul. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones once put it, whole cemeteries could be filled with the sad tombstone: “Born a man, died a doctor.” 
 
 At least in her public persona, Clinton gives off an exclusively professional vibe: industrious, calculated, goal-oriented, distrustful. It’s hard from the outside to have a sense of her as a person; she is a role. 
 
 This formal, career-oriented persona puts her in direct contrast with the mores of the social media age, which is intimate, personalist, revealing, trusting and vulnerable. It puts her in conflict with most people’s lived experience. Most Americans feel more vivid and alive outside the work experience than within. So of course to many she seems Machiavellian, crafty, power-oriented, untrustworthy. 
 
 There’s a larger lesson here, especially for people who have found a career and vocation that feels fulfilling. Even a socially good vocation can swallow you up and make you lose a sense of your own voice. Maybe it’s doubly important that people with fulfilling vocations develop, and be seen to develop, sanctuaries outside them: in play, solitude, family, faith, hobbies and leisure. 
 
 Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the Sabbath is “a palace in time which we build.” It’s not a day of rest before work; you work in order to experience this day of elevation. Josef Pieper wrote that leisure is not an activity, it’s an attitude of mind. It’s stepping outside strenuous effort and creating enough stillness so that it becomes possible to contemplate and enjoy things as they are. 
 
 Even successful lives need these sanctuaries — in order to be a real person instead of just a productive one. It appears that we don’t really trust candidates who do not show us theirs.
– Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in Friday as Taiwan's first female president, and she's already been labeled "extreme" by the news agency for China's Communist Party—in large part because she's not married, the Guardian reports. The Xinhua-run International Herald Leader ran an opinion piece accusing Tsai of having an "erratic style," per the BBC, and a radical platform that could threaten China's hold on Taiwan. "As a single female politician, she does not have the emotional burden of love, of 'family' or children," read the piece, penned by Wang Weixing, a Chinese official who handles Taiwanese matters. "So her political style and strategy tend to be emotional, [personalized], and extreme." He also called Tsai "two-faced" and noted she's "a complicated person who grew up in the twisted Taiwanese society and political environment," the Hong Kong Free Press reports. And, per the South China Morning Post, Wang tacked on another gem to what Shanghaist calls his "sexist pseudo psychoanalysis": that Tsai was insecure because her dad had more than one wife. On the political front, an attempt by Tsai to break away from China wouldn't surprise anyone who's followed her career: The BBC notes her Democratic Progressive Party has been vocal in its push for independence. But it's the tone of the piece (published Tuesday and since removed from Xinhua's site, per CNN) and attack on Tsai's lifestyle that's rankling many on social media. "This was the stupidest and most offensive thing I have read in ages," a Beijing commenter on the Weibo network wrote, per the BBC. Others pointed out other successful single female politicians in Asia and accused Xinhua of suffering from "Straight Man Cancer," a Chinese term signifying a chauvinistic, denigrating attitude toward women, CNN notes. As for Tsai, her spokesman issued a "no comment" on the matter to the BBC. Interestingly, Xinhua's rant against a too "personalized" Tsai contrasts with a New York Times columnist who thinks Hillary Clinton should be just that. (CNN delves into whether discrimination against women in China is actually on the rise.)