Chang San-cheng or Simon Chang () (born 24 June 1954) is a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

politician who was Premier of the Republic of China from 1 February 2016 until 20 May 2016, appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou. Before assuming the Premiership, he had served as Vice Premier from 8 December 2014. Chang was the first

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

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 ...

, then suspended his run to join the Kuomintang ticket, headed by Han Kuo-yu. The pair lost to incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate William Lai.

Education

Chang earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from National Taiwan University in 1976. In 1977, he finished his master's degree in civil and environmental engineering at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. In 1981, He received a doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University.

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 NCHC ...

from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Director of the Department of Planning and Evaluation of National Science Council. Between 2000 and 2010, he worked for

Acer Inc. Acer Inc. ( ) is a Taiwanese multinational hardware and electronics corporation specializing in advanced electronics technology, headquartered in Xizhi, New Taipei City. Its products include desktop PCs, laptop PCs ( clamshells, 2-in-1s, co ...

as Vice President of the e-Enabling Service Business Group, and between 2010 and 2012, he worked for Google as the Director of Google's hardware operations in Asia.

Political career

Chang was appointed as a

Minister without Portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

of the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is the Premier, who is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, and requires confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. ...

in 2012. On March 3, 2014, the National Science Council was upgraded to the Ministry of Science and Technology and Chang served as its first minister. On December 8, 2014, after the ruling Kuomintang lost the local elections, Chang became the Vice Premier after a cabinet reshuffle. On January 16, 2016, after the KMT lost the presidency and its majority in the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

, 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

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 Han Kuo-yu 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 The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

, style="text-align:left;" , Tsai Ing-wen , style="text-align:left;" , William Lai , 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

Kuomintang , style="text-align:left;" , Han Kuo-yu , 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 , 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 Kuomintang as its candidate in the local elections for the Taoyuan mayoralty after a closed-door meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee.

References