Tang Fei

Tang Fei - 唐飛

Tang Fei ( Chinese  唐飛  /  唐飞 , Pinyin Táng Fēi , born March 15, 1932 in Taicang , Jiangsu Province , Republic of China ) is a Taiwanese general and politician of the Kuomintang , who was Prime Minister of the Republic of China in 2000 .

Life

Promotion to Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense

Tang Fei grew up in mainland China during the republic and went into exile in Taiwan in 1949 after the defeat of the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai-shek against the Chinese Communist Party of Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War . There he joined the Air Force of the Republic of China and completed an officer training at the Air Force Academy. After graduation he was a fighter pilot in the 1950s and found numerous uses as an officer and staff officer in the following years. Among other things, he was Superintendent of the Air Force Academy from 1985 to 1986 and Commanding General of the Air Strike Command in 1989, before he was Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force between 1989 and 1991. He later succeeded Lieutenant General Lin Wen-li from September 1992 until his replacement by Lieutenant General Huang Hsien-jung in June 1995, and was Deputy Chief of the Air Force between 1995 and 1998, before he was his successor after his promotion to general from General Lo Pen-li from March 5, 1998 until his replacement by General Tang Yao-ming on January 31, 1999, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of China .

On February 1, 1999, Tang Fei replaced Chiang Chung-ling as Minister of Defense. As such, he was one of the most popular ministers in Prime Minister Vincent Siew's cabinet and was instrumental in the parliamentary approval of the National Defense Law, which placed the military in the service of the country instead of the Kuomintang.

Prime Minister from May to October 2000

After Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) on 20 May 2000 the Office of the President of Taiwan had begun, this Tang Fei, who belonged to the past 55 years alone the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) appointed, the successor to Vincent Siew as Prime Minister (President of the Executive Yuan ).

His cabinet included Tien Hung-mao as foreign minister, Wu Shih-wen as defense minister, Shea Jia-dong as finance minister and Chang Po-ya as interior minister. Previously, the KMT leadership had reluctantly agreed to Teng's appointment, but declined support from his government. Tang's appointment by Chen was widely seen as a deliberate move to gain the support of the armed forces leadership, which was largely sympathetic to the Kuomintang. The appointment of the mainland-born Tang was also intended to alleviate the differences between the Taiwan-born population and the Chinese- born immigrants. Tang found himself exposed to the crossfire between DDP and KMT immediately after his appointment. On October 6, 2000, after only 139 days in office, he officially resigned for health reasons, making him one of the prime ministers with the shortest term of office. His successor was then Chang Chun-hsiung of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Web link

• Entry in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ Taiwan: February 1, 1999
2. ↑ Taiwan: Presidents of the Executive Yuan (Premiers)
3. ↑ Taiwan: May 20, 2000

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Tang is the family name here, Fei is the first name.