Frank Chang-ting Hsieh 謝長廷
Premier, Republic of China (Taiwan)

Frank Chang-ting Hsieh was born on May 18, 1946, into a poor family on Datie ("black-smithing") Street, now Chengde Road, in the Dadaocheng area of downtown Taipei. Although the young Chang-ting had to help support the family, he managed to enter the Taipei Cheng Gong Junior High School, where he quickly developed a passion for gymnastics and eventually won a gold medal in men's rings at the provincial school sports competition. He subsequently entered the Taipei Commercial School and then, in 1967, tested into the Department of Law at the National Taiwan University (NTU). There, he took first place in the bar examination of the Certification Examination for Senior-grade Professionals and Technologists, and in the Civil Service Special Examination for Judicial Personnel. After graduation, Mr. Hsieh entered the NTU's Graduate School of Law and, one year later, passed the Japanese scholarship examination and entered Kyoto University to pursue a master's degree of law.

Having finished the coursework of his doctoral program, Mr. Hsieh had to break off his studies in Japan on account of his father's illness. Returning early to Taiwan, he first worked at an attorney's office, specializing in commercial law.

In 1973, Mr. Hsieh married Miss Yu Fang-chih, his NTU Law Department classmate. They have one daughter and one son.

Mr. Hsieh's sympathy for disadvantaged people prompted him to volunteer at a pro bono legal service center and, ultimately, to serve as a defense attorney in the Kaohsiung Incident case. Realizing that on trial was not only his client but also the dangwai 黨外 democracy movement as a whole, the young lawyer took up the challenge, marking a turning point in his professional and political career.

In 1981, campaigning on a platform of "democracy needs checks and balances; checks and balances rely on politicians from outside the ruling Kuomintang," Mr. Hsieh was elected to the Taipei City Council. Aware that dangwai strengths needed to be consolidated and coordinated, Mr. Hsieh promoted the Dangwai Campaign Assistance Group and Dangwai Association of Public Functionaries for Public Policy Research, which acted as catalysts for the formation of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on September 28, 1986. Mr. Hsieh's devotion to establishing the party meant he had to wait until 1989 before winning his first legislative seat, however. He was reelected in December 1992, and was a long-serving member of the Legislature's education committee, where he promoted the concept of "new culture."

In 1994, Chen Shui-bian invited Mr. Hsieh to organize his campaign team for the Taipei City Mayor election, which Mr. Chen went on to win. In the 1995 legislative election, Mr. Hsieh was selected top of the DPP's slate of candidates for the national constituency. He subsequently resigned to become Dr. Peng Ming-min's running mate in Taiwan's first direct presidential and vice presidential election in 1996.

Despite losing, Mr. Hsieh appreciated the ardent support of Kaohsiung residents and moved to live in the city in July 1996. He was later selected as the DPP candidate for Kaohsiung City's mayoral election of 1998. Hoping for renewal and improvement, Kaohsiung residents elected Mr. Hsieh as mayor and, appreciative of his administration's achievements, reelected him for a second mayoral term in 2002.

The "Kaohsiung experience" of Mr. Hsieh's six years in office became a model for other counties and cities in Taiwan, and moved Kaohsiung to number one ranking in various categories of public opinion polls, including residents' sense of pride in their city.

Mr. Hsieh restarted construction on Kaohsiung's stalled mass rapid transit system, raised the proportion of households connected to the city's sewage system from 6 to 37 percent, initiated Kaohsiung's progress to becoming Taiwan's first "mobile and broadband city" by the end of 2007, and started construction of the Kaohsiung Dome, which will be completed in time for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung.

Mr. Hsieh was DPP chairman from July 2000 until July 2002, and was appointed president of the Executive Yuan (premier) on January 25, 2005. To deal with confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties, legislative standstill, and social division, Premier Hsieh established a "cabinet of consultation" under his administrative tenets of "cooperation, symbiosis, non-zero-sum game, and solidarity."

Premier Hsieh's future administration will focus on creating a healthy Taiwan and development of a "progressive equilateral triangle," that is, a balance between economic development, social justice, and humanistic environment, aiming to provide the people of Taiwan with a stable and secure living environment.