Tsai Ing-wen will become the most powerful woman in the Chinese world when she is sworn in as Taiwan’s president on Friday but she will not have much time to toast her historic achievement.

The cat-loving former law professor faces a daunting to-do list, managing relations with a hostile Beijing government while attempting to revive an economy in recession and assuage hardliners in her party who want Taiwan to push for formal independence.

Beijing claims the self-governing, democratic island as one of its provinces and is deeply suspicious of Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive party, which won presidential and legislative elections in January after vowing to reduce Taiwan’s reliance on China and boost economic growth.