Hsu Kun-yuan (; 1 May 1957 – 6 June 2020) was a Taiwanese politician. He was born in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

, Taiwan. He was a member of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

(KMT). He was a member of the

Kaohsiung City Council Kaohsiung City Council () is the city council of Kaohsiung City, Republic of China. It is currently composed of 65 councilors, each serving a four-year term, elected using the single non-transferable vote system. Speaker and deputy speaker of ...

from 1994 until his death. From 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 until his death, he was Speaker of the City Council.

Biography

native, he and his elder brother Hsu Kun-lung () participated in

tangwai The ''Tangwai'' movement, or simply ''Tangwai'' (), was a loosely knit political movement in Taiwan in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Although the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) had allowed contested elections for a small number of seats in the Legi ...

movements in the 1980s, and they joined the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

(DPP) in 1986. However, Hsu Kun-lung's reputation was tarnished after being involved in a criminal case where two policeman were killed. As a result, Hsu Kun-yuan decided to continue his brother's deeds, and further his political career. In 1994, Hsu was elected a Kaohsiung city councilor as an independent, having left the DPP. In 2004, in order to gain the position of speaker, Hsu wanted to form an alliance with the Kuomintang. However,

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...

opposed it, and Hsu was forced to be relegated to compete for the position of vice-speaker. In 2008, after the election of Ma Ying-jeou as President of Taiwan, Hsu officially joined the KMT. He stated that the reason for joining was that his beliefs were closer to the Kuomintang. In 2010, Hsu was elected Speaker of the Kaohsiung City Council. In 2018, he was re-elected as Speaker of the Kaohsiung City Council. Hsu jumped to his death from his apartment in Kaohsiung on 6 June 2020, hours after the Han Kuo-yu mayoral recall vote. Hsu was known for being an ardent supporter of Han.

References

*Article is (partly) copied from the Simple English Wikipedia. See attribution there. 1957 births 2020 deaths 2020 suicides Speakers of the Kaohsiung City Council Kaohsiung City Councilors Kuomintang politicians in Taiwan Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Kaohsiung People from Kaohsiung Taiwanese politicians who committed suicide Suicides by jumping in Taiwan {{Taiwan-KMT-politician-stub