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Su Tseng-chang 蘇貞昌
Premier, Republic of China (Taiwan)
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Su
Tseng-chang was born in Pingtung County in 1947. After graduating from
the Law Department at National Taiwan University in 1969 and being admitted
to the bar, he practiced law for ten years. During this period, he joined
the Taipei Junior Chamber, later serving as its president and as vice
president of Junior Chamber International Taiwan.
Passionate in his beliefs regarding social justice and human rights, Mr. Su joined forces with Chen Shui-bian and several other attorneys to serve as defense counsel for democracy activists who were arrested in the wake of the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident and faced imprisonment under the former authoritarian regime's martial law.
Motivated by the urgent need for political reform, in 1981 Mr. Su stood for and won election to the Taiwan Provincial Assembly. Four years later, he was re-elected.
After being elected magistrate of Pingtung, Taiwan's southernmost county, in 1989 Mr. Su launched numerous infrastructure projects and vigorously promoted the county's agricultural sector. In recognition of his outstanding performance in that post, he was appointed as secretary-general of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1993.
In 1995 he was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a representative of Taipei County and, in 1997, was elected as Taipei County magistrate. Mr. Su was re-elected to that post in 2001 on the strength of widely acclaimed performance during his first term, particularly with regard to education. His administration oversaw the building of dozens of new schools, and 300 kindergarten classes and 600 nursery schools were newly opened. It promoted continuing education for senior citizens and laborers, and special programs for women.
As Taipei County magistrate, Mr. Su initiated numerous transportation infrastructure projects, including the building of congestion-easing roads and planning for construction of the circle and airport lines of the Taipei-area rapid transit system. He won central government budgetary support for dredging the Keelung River and other waterways to solve flooding problems, created riverside parks totaling over 900 hectares, and developed highly popular tourist attractions such as Danshuei Fishermen's Wharf and Rive Gauche in Bali. The Yingge Ceramics Museum, Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in Bali, and Gold Ecological Park Museum at Jinguashih were also constructed during his terms of office.
Under Mr. Su's administration, the Taipei County government frequently collaborated with the central government on economic development projects. These included the establishment of the Dingpu High-tech Industrial Park in Tucheng and Tatung Technical Industrial Park in Shulin, which attracted investments worth billions of dollars from world-renowned companies, while creating tens of thousands of jobs.
Following his re-election in 2004, President Chen Shui-bian appointed Mr. Su as secretary-general of the Office of the President. His first task in that capacity was to initiate a constitutional re-engineering project aimed at improving government efficiency. To ensure that constitutional reforms reflect the needs of Taiwan's society, he solicited the views of a wide range of people with respect to human rights, social welfare, women's rights, youth development, labor rights, and other issues. These efforts raised public awareness and had a decisive influence on the Legislative Yuan's adoption, in August 2004, of a package of amendments to the Constitution.
In January 2005, Mr. Su was elected chairman of the DPP. As the party's leader, he helped organize the March 26, 2005 parade in protest against China's enactment of its "anti-separation law" (or "anti-secession law," as Beijing translates it). Also under his stewardship, the DPP won the greatest number of seats in the election for the ad hoc National Assembly in 2005.
On January 25, 2006, President Chen appointed Mr. Su as premier. In that position, he has given top priority to four areas of concern: promoting economic development, helping the disadvantaged, rooting out corruption, and fighting crime. He declared that his aspiration as premier was to "walk the right path and act pragmatically." He pledged that his new team would be an "action cabinet," focusing on Taiwan's sustainable development and the well-being of this and future generations.
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