Chang San-cheng facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chang San-cheng
張善政
Official portrait, 2022
2nd Mayor of Taoyuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 December 2022
Deputy	See list Wang Ming-ju Su Jun-bin
Preceded by	Cheng Wen-tsan
27th Premier of the Republic of China
In office 1 February 2016 – 20 May 2016 Acting: 18 January 2016 – 1 February 2016
President	Ma Ying-jeou
Deputy	Woody Duh
Preceded by	Mao Chi-kuo
Succeeded by	Lin Chuan
33rd Vice Premier of the Republic of China
In office 7 December 2014 – 1 February 2016
Prime Minister	Mao Chi-kuo Himself (acting)
Preceded by	Mao Chi-kuo
Succeeded by	Woody Duh
Ministerial offices 1st Minister of Science and Technology In office 3 March 2014 – 7 December 2014 Prime Minister Jiang Yi-huah Deputy Lin Yi-bing Preceded by Cyrus Chu as Minister of National Science Council Succeeded by Lin Yi-bing (Acting) Minister without Portfolio In office 6 February 2012 – 2 March 2014 Prime Minister Sean Chen Jiang Yi-huah Succeeded by Chiang Been-huang
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-24) 24 June 1954 (age 71) Taipei, Taiwan
Political party	Kuomintang (since 2022) Independent (before 2022)
Alma mater	National Taiwan University (BS) Stanford University (MS) Cornell University (PhD)
Scientific career
Fields	Civil engineering Structural engineering
Thesis	An Integrated Finite Element Nonlinear Shell Analysis System with Interactive Computer Graphics (1981)
Doctoral advisor	Richard H. Gallagher Yih-Hsing Pao

Chang San-cheng (Chinese: 張善政; pinyin: Zhāng Shànzhèng), also known as Simon Chang, was born on June 24, 1954. He is a Taiwanese civil engineer, a university professor, and a politician. Currently, he is the mayor of Taoyuan City, a big city in Taiwan, since December 2022.

Before becoming mayor, he was the premier of Taiwan from February to May 2016. The Premier is like the head of the government. He was chosen for this role by President Ma Ying-jeou. Before that, he was the Vice Premier, which means he was the deputy to the Premier, starting in December 2014. Chang San-cheng was special because he was the first Premier in Taiwan who did not belong to a specific political party at the time.

Before he started working in government, Chang San-cheng studied engineering. He got his first degree from National Taiwan University. Then, he earned a master's degree from Stanford University and a doctorate from Cornell University, both in engineering. In 2019, he first thought about running for president in the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election. Later, he joined the Kuomintang party's team as the candidate for vice president, running with Han Kuo-yu. However, they lost the election to the current president, Tsai Ing-wen, and her running mate, William Lai.

Early Life and Education

Chang San-cheng was born in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 24, 1954. His parents were Yun-Hwa and Tung-wen Chang. He went to Chang-An Elementary School from 1960 to 1966. He then attended Ta-tung Junior High School from 1966 to 1969. He graduated from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School in 1972.

After high school, Chang attended National Taiwan University. He earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in civil engineering in 1976. In September 1976, he moved to the United States for more studies. He earned a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in civil engineering and structural engineering from Stanford University. Chang then received a special scholarship to study at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in civil and structural engineering from Cornell in 1981. He focused on computer graphics for his doctorate. His main project was about a computer system for analyzing structures. His professors, Richard H. Gallagher and Yih-Hsing Pao, guided his work.

Early Career

After finishing his studies, Chang San-cheng returned to Taiwan. He worked as a lecturer, then an associate professor, and finally a professor. This was in the Civil Engineering Department at National Taiwan University from 1981 to 1990.

From 1991 to 1997, he was the Director of the National Center for High-Performance Computing. This center works with very powerful computers. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Director of Planning and Evaluation for the National Science Council. This government group helps with science projects.

Between 2000 and 2010, he worked for Acer Inc., a well-known computer company. He was a Vice President there. From 2010 to 2012, he worked for Google. At Google, he was the Director of their hardware operations in Asia.

Political Career

Chang San-cheng first became involved in politics in 2012. He was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the Executive Yuan. This means he was a minister in Taiwan's main government branch, helping with various tasks. This was under the government led by Sean Chen.

On March 3, 2014, the National Science Council became the Ministry of Science and Technology. Chang was chosen to be its first minister. On December 8, 2014, after the ruling Kuomintang party lost some local elections, Chang became the Vice Premier. This happened after the government changed some of its leaders.

Serving as Premier (2016)

Official portrait as Premier, 2016

On January 16, 2016, the Kuomintang party lost the presidency and its majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Legislative Yuan is like Taiwan's parliament. The Premier at the time, Mao Chi-kuo, resigned. Chang San-cheng then served as the acting Premier while Mao was leaving office.

On February 1, President Ma Ying-jeou accepted Mao Chi-kuo's resignation. He then appointed Chang to form a new government. Chang served as Premier for the remaining four months of the presidential term. This made Chang the first Premier in Taiwan's history who was not part of a specific political party.

2020 Presidential Campaign

Chang San-cheng announced on February 17, 2019, that he would run for president as an independent candidate. Later, he joined the presidential campaign of Kuomintang candidate Han Kuo-yu. He became an adviser to Han, but he did not stop his own campaign at first.

In August 2019, Han Kuo-yu created a group to advise on national policies. Chang San-cheng was chosen to lead this group. On November 11, 2019, it was announced that Chang would be the Kuomintang's candidate for vice president. He ran alongside Han Kuo-yu in the 2020 Taiwan presidential election.

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Party		Candidate		Votes	Percentage
		President	Vice president
	Democratic Progressive Party	Tsai Ing-wen	William Lai	8,170,231	57.13%
	Kuomintang	Han Kuo-yu	Chang San-cheng	5,522,119	38.61%
	People First Party	James Soong	Sandra Yu	608,590	4.26%
Total				14,300,940	100%
Valid votes				14,300,940	98.87%
Invalid votes				163,631	1.13%
Votes cast / turnout				14,464,571	74.90%
Eligible voters				19,311,105

Taoyuan Mayoralty (2022–)

In May 2022, the Kuomintang party chose Chang San-cheng as their candidate. He would run for mayor of Taoyuan in the 2022 Taiwanese local elections. This decision was made after a private meeting of the party's main committee. Chang was elected mayor with 52.02% of the votes. He officially started his job as mayor in December 2022.

See also

In Spanish: Chang San-cheng para niños

• List of vice premiers of the Republic of China