# Ann Kao

Ann Kao Hung-an (Chinese: 高虹安; pinyin: Gāo Hóng'ān; born 25 January 1984) is a Taiwanese business executive, engineer, and politician. She worked for Foxconn until 2020, when she was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a member of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP). Partway through her legislative term, Kao was elected Mayor of Hsinchu during the 2022 local election cycle. On 26 July 2024, Kao was removed from office and withdrew from the TPP due to corruption allegations.

## Early life, education, and career

Kao was born on 25 January 1984 in Taipei. She completed a bachelor's degree in information and computer education at National Taiwan Normal University before earning a master's degree from the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Taiwan University. Kao then pursued graduate studies in the United States and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Her doctoral studies were partially funded by the Institute for Information Industry (III).
While working as a researcher for the III, Kao was also a cofounder and part-time employee of Servtech. Immediately prior to running for political office, Kao worked closely with Terry Gou as vice president of Foxconn's Industrial Big Data Office.

## Legislative Yuan

During the 2020 legislative election cycle, Kao ranked third on the Taiwan People's Party list and was elected to the 10th Legislative Yuan via proportional representation. During the campaign period, the Central Election Commission reported that Kao held NT$8.77 million in foreign currency deposits. In February 2020, Kao was appointed head of party affairs in the city of Taichung, and the counties of Changhua and Nantou.

## Hsinchu mayoralty

In July 2022, the Taiwan People's Party nominated Kao as its candidate for the Hsinchu mayoralty. Six candidates contested the office, including major party candidates Lin Geng-ren [zh] of the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party's Shen Hui-hung [zh]. During her mayoral campaign, Mirror Media reported that Kao's doctoral dissertation, authored at the University of Cincinnati, was plagiarized from two studies she had taken part in as a researcher. Both the research and Kao's doctoral study were subsidized by the Institute for Information Industry. She filed a defamation lawsuit against Mirror Media for the publication of the allegations. Institute president Cho Cheng-hung later told the Legislative Yuan that Kao's doctoral thesis had plagiarized 70–80% of the report she had written for the III. On 25 October 2022, the III began legal action against Kao, claiming that she had used copyrighted information in her doctoral thesis.
Separately, Lin Geng-ren accused Kao of violating the Anti-Corruption Act. Lin also claimed that Kao hired her partner Lee Chung-ting and the couple were suspected of payroll deduction fraud. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau duly investigated Kao on these and other charges, including the acceptance of illegal political donations. The day before the 2022 mayoral election, a whistleblower brought attention to an instance of alleged intimidation by a member of Kao's legislative staff toward a former member of the staff. Despite the allegations against Kao, she won the Hsinchu mayoral election, winning 98,121 votes (45%), finishing ahead of Shen (77,764; 35.7%) and Lin (18%). Prior to taking office as mayor, Kao's legislative offices were searched and she was questioned in regards to the allegations against her.
Upon taking office on 25 December 2022, Kao became the first female elected mayor of Hsinchu, and the youngest female county magistrate or mayor in Taiwanese history. She was replaced as a legislator by Chen Wan-hui. Although the Taipei District Prosecutors Office declined to charge her with breach of trust violations due to insufficient evidence in the case, ending the Institute for Information Industry's legal actions against Kao, she was indicted on charges of corruption in August 2023.
In June 2024, following Kao's indictment, an anonymous person launched a campaign to recall her as mayor, citing issues such as an apartment complex fire and allegations of allowing her boyfriend to "exert undue influence in city affairs." As of August, the campaign failed to gain enough signatures in a first-round petition. Organizers said the campaign had reached 53% of the required threshold of signatures in mid-December.

## Legal issues
### Corruption charges related to overtime pay

On 14 August 2023, prosecutors charged Kao with corruption dating back to her tenure as a legislator. Kao denied the allegations, and said that the indictment was politically motivated. The following month, the Taiwan People's Party temporarily suspended Kao's party membership rights pending a verdict on the case.
On 26 July 2024, the Taipei District Court found Kao guilty of violating the Anti-Corruption Act and the Criminal Code [zh]. Specifically, the court found her guilty of embezzling NT$116,514 and sentenced her to seven years and four months in prison. The court also said that she would lose her civil rights for four years. In accordance with the law, Kao was suspended from office. Subsequently, she announced her withdrawal as a member of the Taiwan People's Party. Kao said that the ruling was unprecedented when compared to similar cases in the past decade. The TPP said that the sentence was disproportionate.
Kao appealed the case to the Taiwan High Court. In January 2025, the court paused their review of the case to seek guidance from the Constitutional Court, because the first paragraph of Article 32 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan was found to contravene Article 18 of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court declined to hear the case.

### Allegation related to property developer

In September 2023, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office began investigating allegations made by Democratic Progressive Party city councilors. They alleged that Kao had improper ties to a property developer. Kao denied the allegations.

### Dissertation controversy

In August 2024, the Taipei District Court sentenced Kao to ten months in prison after ruling that she had falsely accused Chen Shih-fen of defamation. Chen had accused Kao of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis. Kao said that she would appeal.