When you think of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), you inevitably think of former president Lee Teng-hui (
Having earned a PhD in education from the University of Northern Colorado, Huang started his teaching career at National Taiwan Normal University's department of education. There he penned many publications that are today regarded as must-reads by local education majors.
It was as a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that Huang first became politically active. He did not immediately stand out, however, maintaining a fairly low profile for the past two decades.
While it is easy to find biographies of politicians such as Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (
This is in spite of the fact that the 70-year-old TSU chairman has held major government and party positions.
In the early 1980s, when Lee was the governor of Taiwan Province, Huang was the education minister.
Huang stepped down in 1983 to take the heat off Lee after a building collapsed at National Feng-yuan Senior High School, killing 26 teachers and students.
Since then, Huang's life and career has been closely connected to that of Lee's. He is considered Lee's closest aide and most trusted subordinate.
During Lee's term as president (1990-1996), Huang doubled as a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet and chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).
Huang's hard work yielded brilliant results in 1993 in the form of the first official cross-strait dialogue -- the Koo-Wang Talks in Singapore.
During the intensive three-day talks between late Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (
Four agreements related to administrative matters were signed in what was seen as a thawing of cross-strait relations.
Huang was promoted to minister of the interior the next year and became Lee's secretary-general of the Presidential Office in 1996 after Lee won the nation's first direct presidential election.
In 1999, the last year of Lee's term as KMT chairman, Huang became KMT secretary-general and was put in charge of former KMT chairman Lien Chan's (
Lee was obliged to resign his chairmanship the next year to take responsibility for Lien's defeat in the election to President Chen Shui-bian (
Today, Lee and Huang are almost inseparable. Whenever Lee is in need, Huang is usually there to offer a helping hand. Huang's acceptance of the TSU chairmanship is a perfect example of this.
The party was hard-hit by its failure to secure five seats in last December's city councilor elections and urgently needed to find a capable chairman to replace Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強), who resigned after the elections. Lee made several phone calls to Huang, who was on vacation in Koh Samui, Thailand, and told him that 19 out of 21 TSU Central Executive Committee members were in favor of him becoming the party's new chairman.
"I told [Lee] that I was enjoying life with my family. I was quite happy with my lot [as vice president of Taiwan Advocates]," Huang said in a gathering with the press after his inauguration.
But as Huang explained, the frequent calls from Lee and visits from TSU members persuaded him to change his mind.
Huang says that "shouldering responsibility" and "transcending the old TSU" are his two major goals.
By announcing that the party would adpot a "left of center" stance, Huang has attempted to move away from the "blue" versus "green" political dichotomy.
"The TSU will become a party which looks after the middle class and the minorities," Huang told attendees of the party's annual assembly last month.
The TSU's new position is something of a gamble, but one that is probably necessary if the party is to survive the year-end legislative elections.
"Huang might be testing the Taiwanese election `market' by shifting the party left of center," said Ku Chung-hwa (
"But such a move is risky because Taiwan does not have a strong left-wing tradition," Ku said. "People may also doubt that the TSU, a party which used to mainly advocate the pursuit of Taiwanese independence, can really serve the needs of the middle class and minority groups."
Ku added that whether or not the TSU's pursuit of social democracy could be effective in easing the political wrangling between the pan-green and pan-blue camps would become clear after the legislative elections.
Shih Cheng-feng (
Shih said that voters' dissatisfaction with their standard of living could be key to the TSU's chances.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man