Peng Tso-kwei (; born 8 February 1947) is a Taiwanese politician who served as head of the

Council of Agriculture The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA; ) of Taiwan, formerly the Council of Agriculture, is the ministry under the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in charged with overseeing affairs related to agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal hu ...

from 1997 to 1999.

Early life and education

Peng was born in

Beipu Beipu Township (; Hakka: ''Pet-phû-hiông'') is a rural township in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Beipu is well known in Taiwan as a center of Hakka culture, especially for production of ''dongfang meiren'' tea and its special Hakkanese blends of t ...

Hsinchu County Hsinchu is a County (Taiwan), county in Regions of Taiwan, north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka people, Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county seat ...

, on 8 February 1947. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in agriculture from

National Chung Hsing University National Chung Hsing University (NCHU; ; lit. National Resurgence University) is a comprehensive research university in South District, Taichung, Taiwan. Currently, NCHU is among the four universities of the Taiwan Comprehensive University Sys ...

and completed on the school's track team. After graduating, Peng earned a Ph.D from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. He then returned to NCHU as a professor.

Political career

Peng took office as head of the

on 15 May 1997. In February 1998, Taiwan reached an agreement to join the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

, but had to make adjustments unpopular with hog farmers, namely opening the nation's market to foreign meats. Peng announced short term losses for the agricultural sector in Taiwan, but vowed to aid livestock farmers. He had backed a first draft of revisions to the Agricultural Development Law as proposed in 1999, but pulled his support after the Council of Agriculture made further changes. The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

legislative caucus proposed another set of amendments, and Peng resigned his position on 6 December 1999 in protest. Peng's resignation was approved the next day and Lin Hsiang-nung was promoted as Peng's successor. After the KMT version of the bill passed 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 four-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a ...

in January 2000, Peng released a statement critical of the newly promulgated law. After the end of his tenure as head of the COA, Peng has written for the ''Taipei Times'' on the subject of agriculture. He is against the construction of housing on agricultural land, as well as the use of

ractopamine Ractopamine () is an animal feed additive used to promote leanness and increase food conversion efficiency in farmed animals in several countries, but banned in others. Pharmacologically, it is a phenol-based TAAR1 agonist and β adrenorecepto ...

in livestock.

Academic career

Peng's appointment as president of National Chung Hsing University drew controversy in September 2000, as he was accused of plagiarism and subsequently investigated. Despite opposition from faculty, he took office as the president of the institution in October 2000, only to be removed from office by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

in January 2001. Peng became president of TransWorld Institute of Technology in February 2001. He was named a department chair at Taichung Healthcare and Management University in August 2003. In 2005, he began teaching at Asia University. He was named the president of

Chung Chou University of Science and Technology Chung Chou University of Science and Technology (CCUT; ) was a private university located in Yuanlin City, Changhua County, Taiwan. The school was closed due to the illegal worker incident. History CCUT was originally established as Chung Chou ...

in 2007. In 2010, Peng was succeeded by Hwang Jenq-Jye.

Personal

Peng is of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

descent. His daughter was the actress Cindy Yang. She committed suicide at her

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: '), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in central Taiwan. Taichung is Taiwan's second-largest city, with more than 2.85 million residents, making it the largest city in Ce ...

home on 21 April 2015, by inhaling helium.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peng, Tso-kwei Living people National Chung Hsing University alumni University of Illinois alumni Presidents of universities and colleges in Taiwan Taiwanese politicians of Hakka descent Academic staff of the National Chung Hsing University Academic staff of Asia University (Taiwan) 1947 births Ministers of agriculture of Taiwan Taiwanese agriculturalists