In 2025, it seems an odd way to falter, but the Chinese Communist Party has a glaring blind spot: dealing with strong women leaders. Since Margaret Thatcher’s handover of Hong Kong to Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) in 1997 with little tension between the “Iron Lady” and China’s paramount leader, the CCP has struggled to engage female heads of state without resorting to misogyny. Thatcher and Deng shared little beyond a belief in free markets as the future’s norm. Yet Deng respected her negotiating prowess, treating her no differently than male counterparts, although CCP propaganda later took cheap shots at Thatcher, as the party apparatus returned to standard operating procedure.
That grudging respect feels distant. In recent decades, the CCP’s leadership and propaganda machine have unleashed misogyny against female leaders, from the Philippines’ Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and especially Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The latest target for what I call the “Archie Bunker treatment” — after the bigoted TV patriarch — Sanae Takaichi, who was elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month and is poised to become Japan’s first female prime minister.
China’s domestic politics offer no counterbalance. Women are scarce in high government roles, with CCP leadership resembling a 1950s Klan rally in its uniformity. While a few women rose in the last two decades, today no female heavyweight graces the Politburo, a stark regression from even token representation. This cadre of unenlightened men, steeped in authoritarianism, fuels a propaganda apparatus that sabotages goodwill with foreign counterparts.
At best, cooperative treatment goes to those who play nice. New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern enjoyed a free pass, fostering ties despite raising human rights concerns. Norway’s Erna Solberg maintained pragmatic relations focused on trade. Germany’s Angela Merkel was lionized in Beijing for her accommodating stance, prioritizing economic engagement over confrontation, making her a reliable partner in Europe’s trade-driven illusions.
Contrast that with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, met with skepticism and derogatory coverage after exiting China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2023. Social media amplified the scorn, painting her as a Western puppet hostile to Beijing’s ambitions. Meloni’s move, aligning Italy with G7 allies wary of Chinese debt traps, drew Beijing’s gendered ire. Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen endured a special hell. No rumor was too crude, no cartoon too grotesque, for CCP channels. State media and trolls peddled disinformation — false claims of affairs or escape plots — blurring anti-independence vitriol with sexism. Her womanhood, not just her policies, seemed the real provocation, amplifying Beijing’s fury over her rejection of unification.
Takaichi is next for this gauntlet. A hardline conservative and China hawk, idolizing Thatcher and echoing Shinzo Abe’s security stance, she promises no goodwill honeymoon. Expect zero overtures, just escalation: cartoons mocking her as a shrill nationalist, whispers of Yasukuni Shrine visits stoking grievances, and social media questioning her stability as a woman in power.
Unlike Abe, whose masculinity perhaps earned respect, Takaichi’s gender invites condescension. The CCP’s misogyny is institutional. Domestically, Xi Jinping’s (習近平) push for traditional roles — urging women to prioritize marriage and childbirth — has crushed feminist activism. Abroad, beyond skilled female diplomats, it reverts to caveman tactics: dismissing women unless they bend.
Even “well-treated” leaders like Merkel faced paternalistic undertones, engaged only for Beijing’s needs. Takaichi’s hawkishness — bolstering U.S. and Taiwan alliances — guarantees friction. But the CCP’s woman problem risks turning the rivalry between Asia’s two giants into an impasse rooted in bigotry. In 2025, it’s absurd: A global power, undone not by strategy, but by its inability to stomach a strong woman at the helm.
Mark Simon is former group director for Next Digital, parent company for Apple Daily.
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