Huang Ta-chou

Huang Ta-chou
黃大洲
Chairman of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee
In office January 1998 – January 2006
Preceded by	Chang Feng-shu
Succeeded by	Thomas Tsai
Minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan
In office June 1996 – September 1997
Preceded by	Wang Jen-huong
Succeeded by	Yung Chaur-shin
Mayor of Taipei
In office 2 June 1990 – 25 December 1994
Preceded by	Wu Po-hsiung
Succeeded by	Chen Shui-bian
Personal details
Born	7 February 1936 (age 80) Shanhua, Tainan, Taiwan, Empire of Japan
Nationality	Republic of China
Political party	Kuomintang
Alma mater	National Taiwan University Cornell University
Occupation	Professor

Huang Ta-chou (Chinese: 黃大洲; pinyin: Huáng Dàzhōu; born 1936), also known as Thomas Huang, is a Taiwanese politician who served as former mayor of Taipei between 1990 and 1994.^[1] Huang is the current chairman of the Chinese Taipei Olympic committee.^[2]

Early life

Huang was born in Shanhua, Tainan in Taiwan, Empire of Japan in 1936. He graduated in National Taiwan University, and Lee Teng-hui, the later President of Taiwan, was once his instructor during that time. He received his PhD in agriculture in Cornell University, U.S., in 1971. He used to be a professor in National Taiwan University after he went back to Taiwan.

Political life

Later on, Huang also participated in politics. He was admired by Lee Teng-hui, who was helpful throughout Huang's political career. At 1979, Lee was the Mayor of Taipei and appointed him as the Advidor of Mayor and the Executive Secretary of Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan. Two years later, Lee became the chief executive of Taiwan Province, he followed Lee to Taiwan Province Government and was appointed the Deputy Secretary-General. He went back to National Taiwan University in 1984 as a professor, before he was appointed the Secretary-General of Taipei City Government in 1987. He became the acting Mayor of Taipei in May, 1990, to replace Wu Poh-hsiung. He then became the official Mayor of Taipei in October, following the nomination of by Lee, the President of Taiwan at that time.

He was the Mayor of Taipei from 1990 to 1994. During that time, under the pressure of democratization, a political form was carried out and the Mayor of Taipei became directly elected, instead of appointed by the President, in 1994. Huang is the last appointed Mayor of Taipei.

In the 1994 Taipei mayoral election, Kuomintang at first was indecisive to determine their representative. Lastly, Huang received the nomination from his party under the support of President Lee Teng-hui. Despite Kuomintang's nomination, it was not enough for Huang to win the election. His failure could be partly ascribed to the split between the Kuomintang and Chinese New Party within the Pan-Blue Coalition in the election. Although the entire Pan-Blue Coalition gained more votes, Huang only received 25.89% of the voter turnout, allowing Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian to be elected in a traditional pro-Chinese reunification city and Mainlander stronghold.

1994 Taipei City Mayoral Election Result
Party		#	Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Independent	1	Ji Rong-zhi (紀榮治)	3,941	0.28%
	New Party	2	Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康)	424,905	30.17%
	Democratic Progressive Party	3	Chen Shui-bian	615,090	43.67%
	Kuomintang	4	Huang Ta-chou	364,618	25.89%
Total				1,408,554	100.00%
Voter turnout

After the failure in the mayoral election, Huang was appointed the Minister of Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan, in June 1996, and the Minister without Portfolio of Executive Yuan in 1997.

He was appointed National Policy Advisor by President Ma Ying-jeou in 2009.

Sports

Apart from politics, Huang also contributed a lot in Sports. He was elected the President of Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in 1997, followed by becoming the President of Chinese Professional Baseball League upon inviation in 2000.

Academics

After his session in the Olympic Committee in 2005, he returned to his academic research in agricultural science. He invented a new method of nurturing strawberry. He is currently a professor of Toko University in Taiwan.

References

1. Copper, John Franklin (1998). Taiwan's mid-1990s elections: taking the final steps to democracy. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-275-96207-4.
2. "Asian Medal Winners In For Bonanza". New Straits Times. 6 September 2000. Retrieved 26 February 2011.