Chang San-cheng or Simon Chang () (born 24 June 1954) is a Taiwanese politician who was

Premier of the Republic of China The Premier of the Republic of China, officially the President of the Executive Yuan ( Chinese: 行政院院長), is the head of the government of the Republic of China of Taiwan and leader of the Executive Yuan. The premier is nominally the ...

from 1 February 2016 until 20 May 2016, appointed by President

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei fro ...

. Before assuming the Premiership, he had served as Vice Premier from 8 December 2014. Chang was the first nonpartisan Premier of the Republic of China. Chang began an independent campaign for the

2020 Taiwanese presidential election Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 11 January 2020 along with the 10th Legislative Yuan election. Incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen and former premier William Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the election, defeating K ...

, then suspended his run to join the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

ticket, headed by

Han Kuo-yu Daniel Han Kuo-yu (; born 17 June 1957) is a Taiwanese politician. He was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1993 to 2002, representing a portion of Taipei County for three terms. He later became general manager of Taipei Agricultural Produc ...

. The pair lost to incumbent president

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...

and her running mate

William Lai William Lai Ching-te (; born 6 October 1959) is a Taiwanese politician who has been the Vice President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2020. He served as a legislator in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2010, and as Mayor of Tainan from ...

Education

Chang earned his bachelor's degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

in 1976. In 1977, he finished his master's degree in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. In 1981, He received a doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Early career

Upon graduation, Chang returned to Taiwan to serve as a lecturer, associate professor and finally, professor in the Department of Civil Engineering of National Taiwan University from 1981 to 1990. He was the Director for

National Center for High-Performance Computing The National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC; ) is one of ten national-level research laboratories under National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL), headquartered at Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park, Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The NC ...

from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Director of the Department of Planning and Evaluation of

National Science Council The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC; ) is a statutory agency of Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for the promotion and funding of academic research, development of science and technology and science parks. NSTC is ...

. Between 2000 and 2010, he worked for Acer Inc. as Vice President of the e-Enabling Service Business Group, and between 2010 and 2012, he worked for

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

as the Director of Google's hardware operations in Asia.

Political career

Chang was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio of the Executive Yuan in 2012. On March 3, 2014, the

was upgraded to the Ministry of Science and Technology and Chang served as its first minister. On December 8, 2014, after the ruling

lost the

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

, Chang became the Vice Premier after a cabinet reshuffle. On January 16, 2016, after the KMT

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

the presidency and its majority in the Legislative Yuan, President Ma appointed Chang as the Premier to serve the remaining four months during the period of transition of power. As a result, Chang became the first nonpartisan Premier of the Republic of China.

2020 presidential campaign

Chang announced his independent candidacy for the

2020 Taiwan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 11 January 2020 along with the 10th Legislative Yuan election. Incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen and former premier William Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the election, defeating K ...

on 17 February 2019. Chang later joined the presidential campaign of Kuomintang candidate

as an adviser without halting his own campaign. In August 2019, Han formed a national policy advisory group headed by Chang. Chang's selection as the Kuomintang's

vice presidential candidate was announced on 11 November 2019. , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan= 2 colspan=2 , Party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan=2 , Candidate ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan= 2 , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan= 2 colspan=2, Percentage , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" , style="text-align:center;" , President , style="text-align:center;" , Vice president , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Green Island with White Cross

Democratic Progressive Party , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:right;" , 8,170,231 , style="text-align:right;" , 57.13% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Emblem of the Kuomintang

, style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , Chang San-cheng , style="text-align:right;" , 5,522,119 , style="text-align:right;" , 38.61% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , LogoPFP

People First Party , style="text-align:left;" ,

James Soong James Soong Chu-yu (born 16 March 1942) is a Taiwanese politician. He is the founder and current Chairman of the People First Party. Born to a Kuomintang military family of Hunanese origin, Soong began his political career as a secretary to ...

, style="text-align:left;" , Sandra Yu , style="text-align:right;" , 608,590 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.26% , style="text-align:right;" , , - ! colspan="4" style="text-align:right;" , Total ! style="text-align:right;" , 14,300,940 ! style="text-align:right;" colspan=2, 100% , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:right;" , Valid votes , style="text-align:right;" , 14,300,940 , style="text-align:right;" colspan=2, 98.87% , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:right;" , Invalid votes , style="text-align:right;" , 163,631 , style="text-align:right;" colspan=2, 1.13% , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:right;" , Votes cast / turnout , style="text-align:right;" , 14,464,571 , style="text-align:right;" colspan=2, 74.90% , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:right;" , Eligible voters , style="text-align:right;" , 19,311,105 , style="text-align:right;" colspan=2,

Later political career

In May 2022, Chang was nominated by the

as its candidate in the

for the Taoyuan mayoralty after a closed-door meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee.

References