Wang Jin-pyng

Wang Jin-pyng

Wang Jin-pyng ( Chinese  王金平 , Pinyin Wáng Jīnpíng ; born March 17, 1941 in Luzhu ( Kaohsiung )) is a Taiwanese politician and former president of the Legislative Yuan , the parliament of the Republic of China (Taiwan) .

Life

Wang Jin-pyng graduated from Taipei Taiwan Normal University in mathematics and taught mathematics after graduating in 1965. He later joined his family's food company and in 1975 was the first chairman of the newly formed Kaohsiung Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In the same year he joined the ruling Kuomintang party .

Political career

Wang was elected to the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China as a member of the Kuomintang in 1975 and has been a member of the legislative yuan ever since. From 1993 he was Vice-President and from 1999 President of the Legislative Yuan. Thanks to the majority of his party in this body, he held the office from 2000 to 2008, when the Kuomintang was in opposition due to the defeats in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 . As a native Taiwanese, Wang mostly represented the moderate, locally-conscious wing of the party in the China-friendly Kuomintang (see also the Taiwan conflict ). From 2000 to 2005 he held the post of vice chairman of the Kuomintang under party chairman Lien Chan . After Lien's resignation, Wang ran for the office of party chairman, but had to admit defeat to his competitor, the future President Ma Ying-jeou . It was the first election in the history of the Kuomintang in which the chairman was directly elected by all party members and in which there was more than one candidate for the office of chairman.

After losing the Kuomintang majority for the first time in the 2016 parliamentary elections , Wang's almost seventeen-year term as President of Parliament ended with the end of the legislative period on January 31, 2016.

Brief expulsion from the Kuomintang and wiretapping scandal

In early September 2013, the Ministry of Justice's Special Investigation Division alleged that Wang Jin-pyng had influenced the prosecutor's office in an investigation into opposition politician Ker Chien-ming ( Democratic Progressive Party ). President Ma responded with harsh criticism, declaring the proceedings a disgrace to Taiwanese democracy and announcing Wang's expulsion from the Kuomintang on September 12, 2013. Critics suggested that Ma's violent reaction was aimed at getting rid of a rival within the party. Exclusion from the party would have meant the loss of his mandate as a member of parliament and thus the end of his office as President of Parliament. Wang, however, took legal action against his expulsion from the party and obtained permission to remain in the party, and thus continued to be parliamentary president.

In connection with the affair, it became known that the Department of Justice's Special Investigation Unit had bugged not only the phone calls between Wang and Ker Chien-ming, but also the phones of numerous other MPs. This action sparked loud protests against the Justice Department and President Ma in parliament and among the population, and resulted in the resignation of Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu .

Web links

• Wang's Facebook page

Individual evidence

1. ^ Asia Times, July 21, 2005
2. ↑ Focus Taiwan, September 11, 2013
3. ^ The Liberty Times, September 9, 2013
4. ^ The China Post, September 12, 2013
5. ↑ Apple Daily, September 30, 2013
6. ↑ Radio Taiwan International ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated September 29, 2013 
7. ↑ Focus Taiwan News Channel of September 29, 2013

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Wang is the family name here, Jin-pyng is the first name.