A series of unfortunate events

TAIWAN’S first female president has had a testing start. Within weeks of Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration in May, China announced that it had cut off important channels of communication with her government, because she refuses to accept the idea of “one China”, with Taiwan as part of it. Ms Tsai has inherited a struggling economy, hampered by sluggish global demand, and has had to contend with a series of mini-crises, too: a flood crippled the capital’s main airport; flight attendants at the largest airline, China Airlines, went on strike to demand better working hours and benefits (stoppages are rare in Taiwan); the navy accidentally fired an anti-ship missile, killing a fisherman.