Johnny Chiang Chi-chen (Chinese: 江啟臣; pinyin: Jiāng Qǐchén; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kang Khé-sîn; born 2 March 1972) is a Taiwanese politician and former international political economy scholar who is currently the vice president of the Legislative Yuan.
Johnny Chiang Chiang Chi-chen | |
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江啟臣 | |
![]() Official portrait, 2024 | |
16th Vice President of the Legislative Yuan | |
Assumed office 1 February 2024 | |
President | Han Kuo-yu |
Preceded by | Tsai Chi-chang |
Member of the Legislative Yuan | |
Assumed office 1 February 2012 | |
Preceded by | Shyu Jong-shyong (Taichung County 4th district) |
Constituency | Taichung VIII |
10th Chairman of the Kuomintang | |
In office 9 March 2020 – 5 October 2021 | |
Secretary General | William Tseng Lee Chien-lung |
Preceded by | Lin Rong-te (acting) |
Succeeded by | Eric Chu |
Minority Leader of the Legislative Yuan | |
In office 14 June 2018 – 1 February 2019 | |
Speaker | Su Jia-chyuan |
Preceded by | Lin Te-fu |
Succeeded by | William Tseng |
27th Director-General of the Government Information Office | |
In office 24 December 2010 – 1 May 2011 | |
Prime Minister | Wu Den-yih |
Preceded by | Su Jun-pin |
Succeeded by | Philip Yang |
Personal details | |
Born | Fengyuan, Taichung County (now Fengyuan District, Taichung), Taiwan | 2 March 1972
Nationality | Taiwan |
Political party | Kuomintang |
Spouse | Liu Tzu-ling |
Children | 2 |
Education | Doctorate |
Alma mater | National Chengchi University University of Pittsburgh University of South Carolina |
Occupation | Politician |
Chiang served as an associate professor in Soochow University before his political career. He was the penultimate Director-General of the Government Information Office from 2010 to 2011, a post he resigned to become a member of the Legislative Yuan in which he has served since 2012. In March 2020, he was elected the Chairman of the Kuomintang and assumed office on 9 March until he was succeeded by Eric Chu on 5 October 2021. Chiang took office as vice president of the Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2024.
Early education
Chiang was born on 2 March 1972. He attended elementary and junior high school in his hometown of Taichung before studying diplomacy at National Chengchi University.[2]
He served in the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion during his compulsory military service. He was honorably discharged from the Army's special force with the rank of corporal.
He earned a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh,[3] followed by a doctorate at the University of South Carolina, both in the United States of America. His doctoral dissertation was "Globalization and The Role of the State in Contemporary Political Economy: Taiwan and India in the 1980s and 1990s".[4]
Academic career
Then, he taught at the Department of Political Science of Soochow University as a full-time associate professor,[5] and worked in multiple positions at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.[6][7]
Political career
He was named the head of the Government Information Office in 2010.[6] When Chiang was selected as a Kuomintang candidate for the legislature in April 2011,[8] he resigned the GIO position and was replaced by Philip Yang.[9] Chiang was one of five former GIO officials to appear on the ballot.[10] He won election in 2012, and again in 2016. Chiang was chosen as one of five conveners of the Legislative Yuan's constitutional amendment committee in 2015.[11] He shared foreign and national defense committee convener duties with Liu Shih-fang in 2016.[12] Chiang announced his intention to contest the Taichung mayoralty in October 2017, becoming the second Kuomintang politician after Lu Shiow-yen to declare interest in the position.[13] It was reported in February 2018 that Chiang had narrowly finished second to Lu in three different public opinion polls that served as the Kuomintang's Taichung mayoral primary.[14] Chiang declared his candidacy for the 2020 Kuomintang chairmanship election on 25 January 2020, ten days after Wu Den-yih resigned the position.[15] Chiang defeated Hau Lung-pin in the leadership election, held on 7 March 2020.[16][17] Chiang took office as Kuomintang chairman on 9 March 2020.[18][19]
In March 2021, KMT chairman Johnny Chiang rejected the "one country, two systems" as a feasible model for Taiwan, citing Beijing's response to protests in Hong Kong as well as the value that Taiwanese place in political freedoms.[20] In September of that year, Chiang lost his bid to retain the chairmanship, finishing third behind Eric Chu and Chang Ya-chung.
Chang won his fourth consecutive legislative term in 2024, and was subsequently elected Vice President of the 11th Legislative Yuan.[21][22]
Candidate | Party | First Round Votes | Second Round Votes | Elected |
---|---|---|---|---|
Johnny Chiang | ‹See Tfd›![]() | 54 | 54 | ![]() |
Tsai Chi-chang | ![]() | 51 | 51 | |
Chang Chi-kai | ‹See Tfd›![]() | 8 | — | |
Invalid Votes | 0 | 0 | ||
Abstain | 0 | 8 |
Personal
Chiang is of Hakka descent from Teochew people.[23] He is married to the daughter of former legislator Liu Shen-liang, with whom he has two children.[6] One of his uncles is Antonio Chiang , a former National Security Council secretary-general.[24]
References
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