Frank Hsieh | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
謝長廷 | |||||||||||||||||
 Official portrait, 2005 | |||||||||||||||||
| Senior Advisor to the President | |||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 1 August 2024 | |||||||||||||||||
| President | Lai Ching-te | ||||||||||||||||
| 12thRepresentative of Taiwan to Japan | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 9 June 2016 – 6 August 2024 | |||||||||||||||||
| President | Tsai Ing-wen Lai Ching-te | ||||||||||||||||
| Minister | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Shen Ssu-tsun | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Lee I-yang | ||||||||||||||||
| 8th Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party | |||||||||||||||||
| Acting 12 January 2008 – 20 May 2008 | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Chen Shui-bian | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tsai Ing-wen | ||||||||||||||||
| In office 20 April 2000 – 21 July 2002 | |||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lin Yi-hsiung | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Chen Shui-bian | ||||||||||||||||
| 16th Premier of Taiwan | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 February 2005 – 25 January 2006 | |||||||||||||||||
| President | Chen Shui-bian | ||||||||||||||||
| Vice Premier | Wu Rong-i | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Yu Shyi-kun | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Su Tseng-chang | ||||||||||||||||
| 2nd Mayor of Kaohsiung | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 December 1998 – 1 February 2005 | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Wu Den-yih | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Chen Chi-mai (acting) | ||||||||||||||||
| Member of the Legislative Yuan | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 February 1993 – 31 January 1996 | |||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Taipei II | ||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 February 1990 – 31 January 1993 | |||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Taipei I | ||||||||||||||||
| Taipei City Councillor | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 December 1981 – 25 December 1989 | |||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Taipei II (Chiencheng, Yianping,Zhongshan) | ||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1946-05-18)May 18, 1946 (age 79) | ||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Democratic Progressive Party | ||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Yu Fang-chih | ||||||||||||||||
| Education | National Taiwan University (LLB) Kyoto University (MJur) | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 謝長廷 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 谢长廷 | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Frank Hsieh Chang-ting (Chinese:謝長廷; born May 18, 1946) is a Taiwanese politician and former defense attorney who served asAmbassador[1] ofTaiwan toJapan from 2016 to 2024. A cofounder of theDemocratic Progressive Party, he has served on theTaipei City Council, theLegislative Yuan, as the mayor ofKaohsiung City, and as thePremier of Taiwan (President of theExecutive Yuan) under presidentChen Shui-bian. Hsieh was the DPP nominee in the2008 presidential election and was defeated byMa Ying-jeou.
Born inDadaocheng, Taipei, in 1946, Hsieh was a gymnast in high school and worked as a food vendor before college.[2][3] He received aBachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree fromNational Taiwan University. Hsieh then obtained amaster's degree and later completed doctoral coursework (all but dissertation) injurisprudence at theGraduate School of Law ofKyoto University in Japan.[4] He was a practicing attorney from 1969 to 1981,[5] serving as a defense attorney in the martial courts following theKaohsiung Incident of 1980.[6][7]
Prior to the 1986 establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party, Hsieh,Chen Shui-bian andLin Cheng-chieh were known as the "three musketeers" of thetangwai movement.[8] Hsieh cofounded the party and was the one who proposed its current name.[9] He has also served as its chairman twice. A two-time Taipei City councilor from 1981 to 1988, Hsieh was then elected to theLegislative Yuan, the next year, and won reelection in 1992.[10] Instead of running for reelection in the 1995 legislative elections, Hsieh chose to run in the 1994 Taipei mayoral election, and lost a primary to eventual winnerChen Shui-bian.[11] In September 1995,Peng Ming-min and Hsieh were placed on the Democratic Progressive Party ticket for the1996 presidential election.[12][13] They finished second with 21.1% of the vote.
In 1997, Hsieh successfully negotiated the surrender of the gunman in theAlexander family hostage crisis, raising his national profile.
To the surprise of many observers, Hsieh won the 1998Kaohsiung City mayoral election, and defeated the Kuomintang incumbent,Wu Den-yih, by 4,565 votes.[14][15] His administration focused on improving water quality in surrounding rivers as well as a general overhaul of theport of Kaohsiung.[16] Hsieh supported placing the port, at the time run largely by the central government, under the jurisdiction ofKaohsiung City Government.[17] Under Hsieh's leadership efforts to clean up the heavily pollutedLove River began in 1999, and ended in 2002.[18][19] He was also largely responsible for the establishment of theKaohsiung Metro.[20][21] These achievements helped Hsieh earn strong support among Kaohsiung citizens.[22] He wasre-elected for a four-year term in 2002. Hsieh was projected to win easily, butPeople First Party chairJames Soong publicly supported Kuomintang candidateHuang Jun-ying, which helped Huang earn more votes.[23] Hsieh defeated Huang by 24,838 votes (3.22%).[14]
In January 2005, Hsieh was appointed premier, forcing him to leave his post as mayor ofKaohsiung.[24][25]Chen Chi-mai succeeded him as acting mayor.
Kuomintang politicians asked Hsieh to step down from the premiership shortly after theKaohsiung MRT foreign workers scandal broke.[26] Hsieh eventually resigned as premier in the aftermath of the2005 "Three-in-One" elections, which the DPP lost in a landslide.[27][28]
As the DPP candidate for the2006 Taipei Mayoral election, Hsieh lost the race to KMT candidateHau Lung-pin by 166,216 votes (12.92%).[29] The loss was largely expected, as Taipei was considered a Kuomintang stronghold.[30]
In February 2007, he led the Taiwanese delegation to the 55th annual United StatesNational Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., hosted by the U.S. Congressional Committee, with dignitaries including PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[31][32]
Hsieh was frequently considered to be a leading contender for the DPP nomination in the2008 presidential election, and formally announced his intention to run in the election on February 16, 2007.[33] Hsieh was the second to formally declared candidacy, after the Kuomintang's Ma Ying-jeou did so three days prior.[34] Hsieh won 45% of the vote in the Democratic Progressive Party primary.[35] A scheduled straw poll was cancelled after his three primary opponents all conceded defeat, and Hsieh was declared the DPP nominee.[36] In July 2007, Hsieh visited theUnited States, branding it "the journey of Love and Trust" (「愛與信任」之旅).[37] In September 2007, Hsieh openly declared that he was running for the presidency of theState of Taiwan (台灣國), saying that "recogniz[ing] ourselves (theTaiwanese people) as a nation first and then fight[ing] for what we want during negotiations with other countries" is important.[38] As a result of the Kuomintang's allegations of graft against Hsieh, prosecutors began an investigation of him in 2007. The investigation ended in September, when it was announced that Hsieh would not be charged with wrongdoing.[39]
RegardingMa Ying-jeou's idea of a "cross-strait common market," Hsieh states that if Taiwan only focuses on the economy, it will end up likeHong Kong andMacau, whose only goal in life is to make money. Hsieh believes that improving the economy is as important as preserving national dignity, and that the goal of economic development is more than just making money, but it is also improving the happiness of people.[40]
Following the DPP's poor performance in the2008 legislative election, Hsieh replaced Chen Shui-bian as party chairman.[41]
In January 2008, Hsieh accused candidateMa Ying-jeou of having a United Statesgreen card. Subsequent investigations revealed that one of Ma's sisters and one of his two daughters areUS citizens. Hsieh stated that if Ma made public documented proof that he had renounced the green card, Hsieh would withdraw from the election.[42]
The election was devastating to Hsieh and the DPP because he lost by a wider-than-expected margin of 17%. Hsieh had stated that if he lost this election, he would not run for office again.[43] He resigned from the DPP chairmanship to take responsibility for the defeat.[44]Tsai Ing-wen was elected as the new chairperson of the DPP.
In July 2010, Hsieh stood for the DPP's central committee standing membership election and won.[45][46]
In October 2012, Hsieh went tomainland China for five days as the highest-ranking DPP official ever to visit. However, the trip was made in no political capacity, but rather as a private citizen. He visitedXiamen and theDongshan Islands inFujian as well asBeijing on October 4–8.[47]
He met with thenState CouncilorDai Bingguo, then PresidentChen Yunlin of theAssociation for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and then DirectorWang Yi of theTaiwan Affairs Office.[citation needed]
Although both sides agreed on theOne-China policy, which governsCross-Strait relations, Hsieh prefers to have a new consensus he calledTwo Sides, Two Constitutions [zh] instead of the1992 consensus.[citation needed]
Hsieh reiterated his "Two Sides, Two Constitutions" initiative while on an April 2013 visit to the United States, and urgedBeijing to accept difference across theTaiwan Strait for both sides being able to facilitate dialogue.[48]
In late June 2013, Hsieh attended a two-day forum oncross-strait relations entitled "Development and Innovation of Cross-Strait Relations" inHong Kong. The forum was co-organized by Taiwan-basedTaiwan Reform Foundation and Beijing-basedTaiwan Research Institute. Before the forum, Hsieh attended a dinner hosted byTung Chee Hwa, formerChief Executive of Hong Kong on Friday evening.[49]
Hsieh said that mutual trust between DPP andBeijing was important and that all of the bilateral exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should benefit the public and address their needs. He also added that rebalancing cross-strait interactions is important as well. He once again reiterated his 'constitutions with different interpretations' view that Taipei and Beijing can coexist if both sides respect each other's constitutional legitimacy.[50]
In March 2016, local media began reporting that Hsieh had accepted a position as Taiwan's representative to Japan inTsai Ing-wen's administration.[51] He announced the appointment in late April,[52] and made his first official visit to Japan on June 9.[53] Ko Shu-ling of theKyodo News wrote favorably of Hsieh's appointment, stating that the focus onCross-Strait andTaiwan–United States relations under previous administrations seemed to be rolled back in favor of a"southward" policy, a goal of the Tsai presidency.[9][54] Hsieh has discussed the possible lifting of Taiwanese restrictions on imports fromFukushima Prefecture, which had been put in place as a result of the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the cause of meltdowns at theFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.[55] Hsieh left his post in mid-August 2024, and is to be replaced byLee I-yang.[56]
Hsieh is married to Yu Fang-chih (游芳枝);[57] together, they have a daughter[58][59] and a son, who served in the military onTungyin Island (Dongyin)[60] and has served as Taipei City councilor since 2014.[61][62] Hsieh's mother died in 2007.[63]
Hsieh and nine other Democratic Progressive Party politicians performed traditional Taiwanese songs on a re-release of the albumOh! Formosa in 2000.[64] He later learned to play the ocarina, and released his own album in 2005.[2]
Hsieh first claimed part-aboriginal descent in 2005,[65] and stated that he enjoyedBunun music.[66]
He is also of seventh generationnative Taiwanese ofHoklo descent; his ancestor Hsieh Kuang-yu (謝光玉) migrated from Tongshan, a village inFujian province, the ancestral hometown beingZhao'an County (now part ofDongshan County).[67][68]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)In a dig at Ma and his family, Hsieh said, 'Taiwan is my only choice – my family members do not possess foreign passports; my son is serving in the military on Tungyin in Matsu.'
He will visit Dongshan island, the home of his ancestors, and the Olympic stadium in Beijing.
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of Kaohsiung 1998–2005 | Succeeded by Chen Chi-mai Acting |
| Preceded by | President of the Executive Yuan 2005–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairperson of the DPP 2000–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairperson of the DPP Acting 2008 | Succeeded by |
| DPP nominee forPresident of the Republic of China 2008 | ||
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Shen Ssu-tsun | ROC Representative to Japan 2016–present | Incumbent |
.svg)
