Yeh Kuang-shih (; born 7 January 1957) is a Taiwanese politician and

management scientist Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

. He was the Minister of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications from 18 February 2013 until 9 January 2015, and one of the three deputy mayors of Kaohsiung within the municipal administration of

Han Kuo-yu Han Kuo-yu (Chinese language, Chinese: 韓國瑜, born 17 June 1957), also known as Daniel Han, is a Taiwanese politician and retired Republic of China Army officer who is the current president of the Legislative Yuan. Han graduated from the ...

from 25 December 2018 to 12 June 2020.

Early life and education

Yeh Kuang-shih was born in

Hualien City Hualien City (; Wade-Giles: Hua¹-lien² Shih⁴; Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Hoa-lian-chhī'' or ''Hoa-liân-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Hualien County, Taiwan. It is located on the east coast of Taiwan on the ...

in 1957. His parents are immigrants from

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He graduated from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1979. He then obtained a master's degree in

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

in 1984, and a Ph.D. in

organization theory Organizational theory refers to a series of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also seeks to explain how interrelated units of organiza ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

in 1990.

Academic career

Yeh was a professor at

Sun Yat-sen University Sun Yat-sen University (; SYSU) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education, SASTIND, and Guangdong Provincial Government. The university is p ...

in Department of Business Administration from 1991 to 2015. He has more than 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has written several books on business administration. After resigning from his post as the Minister of Transportation and Communications in 2015, Yeh left Sun Yat-sen University for the Graduate Institute of Technology Innovation & Intellectual Property Management at

National Chengchi University National Chengchi University () is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. First established in Nanjing in 1927, the university was subsequently reestablished in 1954 in Taiwan as the first reestablished "National University". The u ...

. He retired in 2018.

Political career

Deputy Minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission

Yeh served as the Deputy Minister of the

Research, Development and Evaluation Commission The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC; ) was a branch of the Executive Yuan of the Taiwan. The commission was responsible for policy research and development, policy planning, policy supervision and evaluation, government's IT ...

from 2008 to 2009. During his time he participated in the Organizational Reform of Executive Yuan.

Political Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications

From 2009 to 2013 Yeh served as the Political Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications. During this time, he instituted

Taoyuan International Airport Corporation Taoyuan International Airport Corporation (TIAC; ) is a government-owned corporation responsible for the management of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. It is a company based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of China, established on November 1, 20 ...

, the operator of the

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (Traditional Chinese: 臺灣桃園國際機場) is the main international airport serving Taiwan, particularly the northern region and Taipei. Located in Dayuan, Taoyuan, approximately west of Taipei, t ...

, and served as the first chairman.

Minister of Transportation and Communications

After Premier Sean Chen stepped down in 2013, Yeh replaced

Mao Chi-kuo Mao Chi-kuo ( zh, t=毛治國, s=毛治国, first=t, p=Máo Zhìguó; born 4 October 1948) is a Taiwanese politician, engineer, and academic who served as the 16th Premier of the Republic of China from 2014 to 2016 and the President of Executive ...

as the Minister of Transportation and Communications.

2013 Nantou earthquake

Right after an

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

struck Taiwan on 27 March 2013, Yeh ordered all officials within the ministry departments to conduct checks on any damage caused by the earthquake.

Taoyuan International Airport MRT delay

Commenting on the completion delay of

Taoyuan International Airport MRT Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), commonly known as the Airport MRT, is a rapid transit line of the Taoyuan Metro that connects Taipei, Taoyuan and New Taipei with Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan. ...

in mid April 2013, Yeh said that he hoped that the line can be opened somewhere before October 2014, after the ROC Ministry of Transportation and Communications had postponed it from its original June 2013 official launch. He added that the delay is caused by the MRT electromechanical systems in which it is still currently being worked out by the appointed contractor. In early May 2013 during a session at the Transportation Committee of 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 ...

, Yeh became the target of heavy criticism due to the ongoing delay of the airport MRT completion, even the DPP asked Yeh to resign as his responsibility of the delay. Yeh responded by stating that he had already questioned the train

signaling system Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) is a set of telephony signaling protocols developed in the 1970s that is used to setup and teardown telephone calls on most parts of the global public switched telephone network (PSTN). The protocol also performs ...

contractor legitimacy and the tender process in choosing the contractors. He added that any dispute regarding the tender and bidding process had long been officially closed since the investigator could not find anything illegal. However, he promised to further submit all of the information found to prosecutor for further investigation.

ROC first casino

After the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive (government), executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Under the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, amended constitution, the head of the Execut ...

approval in early May 2013 in establishing ROC first

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

, Yeh said that ROC government considers that the casino will be established in Lienchiang,

Fukien Province Fujian is a province in southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Quan ...

, not in Taiwan Island. He expected that the casino resort will house the casino, hotel, convention and other facilities. The casino resort is expected to be established in 2019 the earliest.

Resignation

On January 7, 2015, which happens to be Yeh's birthday, Yeh resigned after failure to secure support from his party to

Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation , owner = Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation , area served = Taiwan (main island only) , transit_type = High-speed railway , lines = 1 , line_number = , start = , end = , stations = 12 , daily_ridership = , annual_ridership = 81, ...

’s (THSRC) financial restructuring plan. The plan was perceived by some lawmakers to benefit the investors more than the public, or unnecessary because THSRC is not in imminent danger to go bankrupt, or the government should let the corp go bankrupt. A modified version of the financial restructuring plan was passed later that year. Later that year, he became an adviser to

Hung Hsiu-chu Hung Hsiu-chu (; born 7 April 1948) is a Taiwanese politician. As a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), she has served the party as a Deputy Chairperson and Deputy Secretary-General. Hung was first elected to the legislature in 1990, and was the V ...

's presidential campaign. Hung was eventually replaced by

Eric Chu Eric Li-luan Chu (; born on 7 June 1961) is a Taiwanese politician, statistician, and academic who is currently the Chairman of the Kuomintang, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT). Born into a political family with strong ties to the Kuomintan ...

to represent the party in the election.

Deputy mayor of Kaohsiung

Yeh was appointed deputy mayor of Kaohsiung in December 2018 by

, serving alongside

Lee Shu-chuan Lee Shu-chuan (; born 1 February 1958) is a Taiwanese politician. Currently, he is serving as the deputy mayor of Taipei. He was also the deputy mayor of Kaohsiung from 25 December 2018 to 12 June 2020. He previously served in multiple positions ...

and

Chen Hsiung-wen Chen Hsiung-wen () or Sherman Chen is a Taiwanese engineer and politician. He was the Minister of Labor from 20 August 2014 until 20 May 2016. Early life and education Chen earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and master's degree ...

. He mainly focused on policies related to economic development, transportation, tourism, culture, and education. The appointment ended in June 2020 after the recall of mayor Han.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeh, Kuang-shih Ministers of transportation and communications of Taiwan Living people Carnegie Mellon University alumni Kuomintang politicians in Taiwan Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Hualien County 1957 births Academic staff of the National Sun Yat-sen University National Taiwan University alumni University of Delaware alumni Deputy mayors of Kaohsiung