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Chang San-cheng (Chinese:張善政; pinyin:Zhāng Shànzhèng; born 24 June 1954),[1] also known by his English name Simon Chang,[2] is a Taiwanese civil engineer, academic, and politician who has served as the mayor of Taoyuan City since 2022. He previously served as the premier of the Republic of China from 1 February 2016 to 20 May 2016 after being appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou.[3] Before assuming the premiership, he had served as vice premier from 8 December 2014 under the Mao Chi-kuo cabinet.[4][5][6][7] Chang was the first nonpartisan premier of Taiwan.
Before entering politics, Chang graduated from National Taiwan University and earned a master's degree from Stanford University and his doctorate from Cornell University in engineering. He 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.
Chang was born in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 24, 1954, to Yun-Hwa and Tung-wen Chang. He was educated at Chang-An Elementary School (1960–1966), Ta-tung Junior High School (1966–1969), and graduated from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School in 1972.[8]
After high school, Chang graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering in 1976. He left Taiwan in September 1976 to complete graduate studies in the United States. He earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in civil engineering and structural engineering from Stanford University in 1977. Chang was then awarded a graduate fellowship to enroll in Cornell University and earned his Ph.D. in civil and structural engineering from Cornell in 1981 with a specialization in computer graphics.[9] His doctoral dissertation was titled, "An Integrated Finite Element Nonlinear Shell Analysis System with Interactive Computer Graphics," and was supervised by professors Richard H. Gallagher and Yih-Hsing Pao.[10]
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.[11]
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.
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 premierMao 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.
Chang announced his independent candidacy for the 2020 Taiwan presidential election on 17 February 2019.[12] Chang later joined the presidential campaign of Kuomintang candidate Han Kuo-yu as an adviser without halting his own campaign.[13][14] In August 2019, Han formed a national policy advisory group headed by Chang.[15] Chang's selection as the Kuomintang's 2020 Taiwan presidential election vice presidential candidate was announced on 11 November 2019.[16][17]
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.[18] Chang was elected by 52.02% percentage of votes and assumed office in December 2022.
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