# Puma Shen

Shen Pao-yang (Chinese: 沈伯洋; pinyin: Shěn Bóyáng; born June 7, 1982), also known by his English name Puma Shen, is a Taiwanese politician, lawyer, and criminologist. As a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he was elected to the Legislative Yuan and became a member on 1 February 2024. His areas of focus include human rights, criminal policy, youth issues, and information warfare.

## Early life and education

Puma Shen was born on June 7, 1982 in Taipei, Taiwan. He graduated from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and then graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from National Taiwan University (NTU).
After completing his undergraduate studies, Shen entered the Graduate Institute of Law at NTU. During this time, he was greatly influenced by his thesis advisor, Professor Mau-Sheng Lee [zh] (李茂生). Lee frequently took his students to visit juvenile prisons and correctional institutions, providing post-guidance counseling for troubled youth. Concurrently, Shen began working part-time at a cram school, where he taught criminal law to students preparing for the civil service exams, using the alias "Puma" (transliterated as 撲馬, Pūmǎ in Chinese).
After several years of teaching at the cram school, Shen suspended his studies in Taiwan and pursued higher education in the United States, earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Subsequently, he enrolled at the University of California, Irvine, focusing on social ecology, including urban design, social psychology, and criminology. His doctoral dissertation concentrated on the comparative analysis of white-collar crime in the United States and China, earning him a Ph.D. in "Crime, Law, and Society."

## Early career

After returning to Taiwan, Shen served as a faculty member at the Institute of Criminology, National Taipei University (NTPU). He initiated research on China's information warfare and cognitive operations towards Taiwan. He held various positions, including a member of the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee (2018–2020), director of Taiwan's official media Central News Agency, vice chairman of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, co-founder of the civil defense education institution Kuma Academy, and the DoublethinkLab [zh] (台灣民主實驗室).
To facilitate Taiwan's collaboration with countries worldwide to defend against unfavorable actions from China, Shen developed the China Index, a metric illustrating the depth of influence exerted by the Beijing government on a particular country or region. In 2023, he was elected as a member of the World Movement for Democracy Committee.

## Legislative career

In November 2023, Shen was nominated by the Democratic Progressive Party as a candidate on the list of legislators for nationwide and overseas, ranking second. He successfully won the election on January 13, 2024. He has expressed the necessity of legislative responses to various aspects of China's influence on Taiwan, including international law, propaganda warfare, and the need to address threats from Chinese agents and gray zone activities through legislation and national defense reforms. In May 2024, Shen with help from DPP colleagues climbed on top of a crowd of Kuomintang legislators during a brawl in the Legislative Yuan. He was dragged down by them and fell from the podium, requiring hospitalization. On October 15, 2024, he was sanctioned by the Taiwan Affairs Office and included him on a list of "Taiwan independence" diehards.

## Personal life

Shen's wife, Tseng Hsin-hui (Chinese: 曾心慧; pinyin: Zēng Xīnhuì), is a lawyer who also teaches civil law at a cram school, using the pseudonym Chihiro (千尋). The couple has not had biological children but adopted a girl nicknamed "Mochi" (麻糬, Môa-chî).