Chang San-cheng facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chang San-cheng Simon Chang
張善政
Official portrait, 2022
2nd Mayor of Taoyuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 December 2022
Deputy	See list Wang Ming-ju Su Jun-bin
Preceded by	Cheng Wen-tsan
27th Prime Minister of Taiwan
In office 1 February 2016 – 20 May 2016 Acting: 18 January 2016 – 1 February 2016
President	Ma Ying-jeou
Deputy	Woody Duh
Preceded by	Mao Chi-kuo
Succeeded by	Lin Chuan
33rd Deputy Prime Minister of Taiwan
In office 7 December 2014 – 1 February 2016
Prime Minister	Mao Chi-kuo Himself (acting)
Preceded by	Mao Chi-kuo
Succeeded by	Woody Duh
1st Minister of Science and Technology
In office 3 March 2014 – 7 December 2014
Prime Minister	Jiang Yi-huah
Deputy	Lin Yi-bing
Preceded by	Cyrus Chu as Minister of National Science Council
Succeeded by	Lin Yi-bing (Acting)
Minister without Portfolio
In office 6 February 2012 – 2 March 2014
Prime Minister	Sean Chen Jiang Yi-huah
Succeeded by	Chiang Been-huang
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-24) 24 June 1954 (age 70) Taipei, Taiwan
Nationality	Taiwan
Political party	Kuomintang (since 2022)
Other political affiliations	Independent (before 2022)
Alma mater	National Taiwan University Stanford University Cornell University

Chang San-cheng (or Simon Chang) (Chinese: 張善政; pinyin: Zhāng Shànzhèng; born 24 June 1954) is a Taiwanese politician who has been the mayor of Taoyuan City since 25 December 2022. He was premier of Taiwan from 1 February 2016 (de facto; 18 January 2016 as the acting premier) until 20 May 2016, appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou. Before assuming the premiership, he had served as vice premier from 8 December 2014 under the Mao Chi-kuo cabinet. Chang was the first nonpartisan premier of Taiwan.

Chang at Taipei IT Month

Chang began an independent campaign for the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election, 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. 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 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. 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 first appointed and involved in politics as a minister without portfolio of the Executive Yuan in 2012 under the Sean Chen cabinet. On March 3, 2014, the National Science Council was upgraded to the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chang was named 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.

Caretaker Premiership (2016)

Official portrait as Prime Minister, 2016

On January 16, 2016, after the KMT lost the presidency and its majority in the Legislative Yuan at the 2016 Taiwanese general election, the then-incumbent premier Mao Chi-kuo resigns and refuse to stay at the position, Chang served as the acting premier while Mao is outgoing.

On 1 February, the then-incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou approve resignation of Mao Chi-kuo, and appointed Chang to form the cabinet to serve the remaining four months during the period of transition of power. As a result, Chang became the first nonpartisan premier of the history in Taiwan's politics.

2020 presidential campaign

Chang announced his independent candidacy for the 2020 Taiwan presidential election 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 2020 Taiwan presidential election vice presidential candidate was announced on 11 November 2019.

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Party		Candidate		Votes	Percentage
		President	Vice president
	Democratic Progressive Party	Tsai Ing-wen	William Lai	8,170,231	57.13%
	Kuomintang	Han Kuo-yu	Chang San-cheng	5,522,119	38.61%
	People First Party	James Soong	Sandra Yu	608,590	4.26%
Total				14,300,940	100%
Valid votes				14,300,940	98.87%
Invalid votes				163,631	1.13%
Votes cast / turnout				14,464,571	74.90%
Eligible voters				19,311,105

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. Chang was elected by 52.02% percentage of votes and assumed office in December 2022.

See also

In Spanish: Chang San-cheng para niños

• List of vice premiers of the Republic of China