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'Frank Chang-ting Hsieh' (; Wade-Giles: Hsieh Ch'ang T'ing; : Siā Tiông-têng or Chiā Tiông-têng) (born May 18, 1946 in Dadaocheng, Datong District, Taipei), a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party, was the mayor of Kaohsiung City until his appointment as Premier of the Republic of China by president Chen Shui-bian on February 1, 2005 a post from which he announced his resignation on January 17, 2006. Hsieh is the DPP nominee in the 2008 presidential election.

Contents

Rise in politics

Kaohsiung Mayoralty

Premiership and aftermath

Presidential election

Trivia

See also

External links

Notes

Rise in politics

Hsieh received his Bachelor of Laws degree from National Taiwan University and Master of Laws degree from Kyoto University. He was a practicing attorney from 1969 to 1981, serving as a defense attorney in the Kaohsiung Incident of 1980.
Hsieh was involved in the Democratic Progressive Party's establishment and organization in 1986, suggesting the party's name. He became the chairman of the party from June 2000 to 2002 (preceded and succeeded by Chen Shui-bian). He was a Taipei city councilman from 1981 to 1988 (two terms) and a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1989 to 1995. Hsieh ran in the 1996 presidential as a vice-presidential candidate with Peng Ming-min on the DPP ticket. They finished second with 21.1% of the vote. He won the Kaohsiung City mayoral election in 1998 and was re-elected in 2002.

Kaohsiung Mayoralty

In 1998, Hsieh was elected the Kaohsiung Mayor. Under his administration, the walls of many parks and schools were taken down, with the goal of making the city seem more connected to the people. He also worked to improve the water qualities of rivers, including Love River. Hsieh improved the quality of the port of Kaohsiung.
According to a poll, the "Satisfaction of the mayoral/magistral administration," and the "Satisfaction of development improvement" of Kaohsiung are ranked No. 1 out of all the counties and cities in Taiwan. Also, more and more people are proud of living in Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung was widely considered to be improved a lot by the Hsieh administration.^[1]

Premiership and aftermath

Hsieh resigned as premier in the aftermath of the 2005 "Three-in-One" elections in which the KMT won over the DPP by a landslide.
As the DPP's candidate for the 2006 Taipei Mayoral election, Hsieh lost the race to KMT candidate Hau Lung-pin by 166,216 votes. However, this exceeded expectations (and predictions from most political polls) as President Chen was suffering from low approval ratings and Taipei heavily leaned towards the blue camp.
In February 2007, he led the Taiwanese delegation to the 55th annual United States National Prayer Breakfast ^[2] in Washington DC, hosted by US Congressional Committee with dignitaries including President George W. Bush.

Presidential election

Hsieh was frequently considered to be a contender for the DPP nomination in the 2008 presidential election, and formally announced his intention to run in the election on February 16. Hsieh was the second to formally announce candidacy after former-KMT chairman Ma Ying-Jeou, and the first from the Democratic Progressive Party. He has won 45% of the DPP primary votes ^[3]
and won the nomination, after the pending straw poll to be conducted May 9-11 was cancelled after his three primary opponents all conceded defeat.^[4] In July 2007, Frank Hsieh went on a trip to the United States called the trip of "Love and Trust" (「愛與信任」之旅).^[5]

Trivia

Hsieh is married to Yu Fang-Chih (游芳枝); together, they have a son and a daughter.
Hsieh hosted a TV show, ''Frank Asks Qingtian'' (長廷問青天), from October 3, 1996 to June 11, 1997 on TVBS. He also hosted a radio show ''Frank's Express Letters'' (長仔之限時批) on the radio station Greenpeace (unrelated to the environmentalist organization) FM 97.3 MHz from June 1996 to June 1997.

See also

★ Politics of Taiwan

External links

★ Frank Hsieh Personal Website

★ Frank Hsieh's Blog

★ Wikinews: Frank Hsieh named new Taiwanese premier

Notes

1. 高雄市民調總評比 全國第一名'', Kaohsiung e-Paper, 2004/08/26''
2. "Former Premier Chang-ting Hsieh...Will Attend the 55th Annual National Prayer Breakfast of the United States..."'', Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (TAIWAN) , 2007/1/29''
3. "Frank Hsieh wins DPP primaries"'', China Post, 2007/5/7''
4. "Hsieh confirmed as DPP candidate"'', China Post, 2007/5/8''
5. Liou De-tsang, "謝長廷啟程赴美訪問 定位為愛與信任之旅", The Central News Agency, 2007/07/20