Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) on Wednesday was named among the Top 100 Global Thinkers by US-based Foreign Policy magazine.
The 100 people were split into 10 categories, with Tang grouped under “readers’ choice,” which was determined through an online poll.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, former US first lady Michelle Obama and White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro were also included in the category.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Tang is the world’s only transgender Cabinet minister, and rose to prominence as a star computer programmer and entrepreneur, the magazine said.
“In 2018, Tang showed her dedication to her portfolio as Taiwan’s digital minister by addressing the United Nations from an iPad,” it said.
Tang on Facebook yesterday said that her inclusion in the list shows that the nation’s social development and democratic innovations have gained worldwide recognition, and is encouragement to continue to work in the area.
“For me, thoughts are never my personal creation, but the result of collective wisdom,” Tang said, adding that the government’s openness, social innovations and youth participation initiatives rely on public contributions.
Taiwanese venture capitalist Lee Kai-fu (李開復) also made the list under the technology category.
Lee worked at Apple, Microsoft and Google, and is the founder of venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures, Foreign Policy said.
He believes that artificial intelligence (AI) and humanity can coexist, it said, adding that Lee in a book published last year argues that thanks to its supercharged start-up culture, China is to surge ahead of the US in the tech race.
As this year marks the annual list’s 10th anniversary, the edition also includes the top 10 most influential individuals or groups of the past decade.
Those on the list include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former US president Barack Obama, Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴) cofounder Jack Ma (馬雲), the women of the #MeToo movement, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, CNN host Fareed Zakaria, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, who cochair an eponymous philanthropic foundation, were also nominated as people who have had the greatest effects over the past 10 years.
The magazine also listed authoritarian leaders it calls “the strongmen,” including US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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