Following Saturday's vote, Tsai addressed tensions with China over the territory's sovereignty, saying Taiwan is willing to engage with China but that China must respect the voice of Taiwan's voters.
"The results of this election carry an added significance because they have shown that when our sovereignty and democracy are threatened, the Taiwanese people will shout our determination even more loudly back," Tsai said during a news conference.
Tsai also urged China to abandon threats of force against Taiwan and said all countries should consider Taiwan "a partner, not an issue." With more than 99% of the votes counted by Taiwan's Central Election Commission, Tsai's 8 million votes surpasses Ma Ying-jeou's 2008 record of 7,658,724 votes. In Saturday's vote, Han Kuo-yu received more than 5.4 million votes, and James Soong received more than 600,000 votes.