# Chang San-cheng

Chang San-cheng (Chinese: 張善政; pinyin: Zhāng Shànzhèng; born 24 June 1954), also known by his English name Simon Chang, is a Taiwanese politician and engineer who has been the mayor of Taoyuan City since 25 December 2022. He was premier of Taiwan from 1 February 2016 (de facto; 18 January 2016 as the acting premier) until 20 May 2016, appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou. Before assuming the premiership, he had served as vice premier from 8 December 2014 under the Mao Chi-kuo cabinet. Chang was the first nonpartisan premier of Taiwan.
Chang began an independent campaign for the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election, then suspended his run to join the Kuomintang ticket, headed by Han Kuo-yu. The pair lost to incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate William Lai.

## Education

Chang earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in civil engineering from National Taiwan University in 1976. In 1977, he finished his master's degree in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. In 1981, he earned a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University.

## Early career

Upon graduation, Chang returned to Taiwan to serve as a lecturer, associate professor and finally, professor in the Department of Civil Engineering of National Taiwan University from 1981 to 1990. He was the Director for National Center for High-Performance Computing from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Director of the Department of Planning and Evaluation of National Science Council. Between 2000 and 2010, he worked for Acer Inc. as Vice President of the e-Enabling Service Business Group, and between 2010 and 2012, he worked for Google as the Director of Google's hardware operations in Asia.

## Political career

Chang was first appointed and involved in politics as a minister without portfolio of the Executive Yuan in 2012 under the Sean Chen cabinet. On March 3, 2014, the National Science Council was upgraded to the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chang was named as its first minister. On December 8, 2014, after the ruling Kuomintang lost the local elections, Chang became the vice premier after a cabinet reshuffle.

### Caretaker Premiership (2016)

On January 16, 2016, after the KMT lost the presidency and its majority in the Legislative Yuan at the 2016 Taiwanese general election, the then-incumbent premier Mao Chi-kuo resigns and refuse to stay at the position, Chang served as the acting premier while Mao is outgoing.
On 1 February, the then-incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou approve resignation of Mao Chi-kuo, and appointed Chang to form the cabinet to serve the remaining four months during the period of transition of power. As a result, Chang became the first nonpartisan premier of the history in Taiwan's politics.

### 2020 presidential campaign

Chang announced his independent candidacy for the 2020 Taiwan presidential election on 17 February 2019. Chang later joined the presidential campaign of Kuomintang candidate Han Kuo-yu as an adviser without halting his own campaign. In August 2019, Han formed a national policy advisory group headed by Chang. Chang's selection as the Kuomintang's 2020 Taiwan presidential election vice presidential candidate was announced on 11 November 2019.
| Party | Party | Candidate | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Percentage |
| Party | Party | President | Vice president | Votes | Percentage | Percentage |
| | Democratic Progressive Party | Tsai Ing-wen | William Lai | 8,170,231 | 57.13% | |
| | Kuomintang | Han Kuo-yu | Chang San-cheng | 5,522,119 | 38.61% | |
| | People First Party | James Soong | Sandra Yu | 608,590 | 4.26% | |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 14,300,940 | 100% | 100% |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 14,300,940 | 98.87% | 98.87% |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 163,631 | 1.13% | 1.13% |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | 14,464,571 | 74.90% | 74.90% |
| Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | 19,311,105 | | |

## Later political career

In May 2022, Chang was nominated by the Kuomintang as its candidate in the local elections for the Taoyuan mayoralty after a closed-door meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee. Chang was elected by 52.02% percentage of votes and assumed office in December 2022.