Kuo Kuo-wen (; born 11 March 1967) or Robert Kuo is a Taiwanese politician. He has served as secretary-general of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions and Taiwan Labor Front, as well as a member of the

Tainan City Council The Tainan City Council (TNCC; ) is the elected municipal council of Tainan City, Republic of China that the council is composed of 57 councilors elected from Single non-transferable vote for four-year terms to oversees the Tainan City Govern ...

. He was appointed deputy minister of labor in 2016, and left the position in 2017. He was elected to the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

in March 2019.

Education

Kuo Kuo-wen, also known by the English name Robert Kuo, was born on 11 March 1967. He obtained his master's degree in law from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

and doctoral degree in political economy from

National Cheng Kung University National Cheng Kung University (NCKU; ) is a public research university located in Tainan, Taiwan. The university is best known for engineering, computer science, medicine, and planning and design. As a top university in Taiwan, NCKU has played ...

Activism

Kuo is involved with the labor movement in Taiwan, and was the secretary-general of the and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions.

Political career

In May 2016, he was appointed the deputy minister of labor, and vacated his seat on the

to take the post. In September 2017, he left his position at the labor ministry, citing personal reasons. Considered a potential candidate for the 2020 legislative election, Kuo instead contested a March 2019 legislative by-election in Tainan for the open seat of

Huang Wei-cher Huang Wei-che (; born 26 September 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. He was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2005 to 2018. Huang is the incumbent Mayor of Tainan since 25 December 2018 after winning the title during the 2018 local elections ...

, and defeated four other candidates. Kuo won the election, though he finished less than three percent ahead of his closest challenger,

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 ...

candidate , in a district that has been considered a stronghold for 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 ...

. Kuo was sworn in as a member of the

on 21 March 2019. He won a full legislative term in 2020, facing Kuomintang candidate .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuo, Kuo-wen 1967 births Living people Government ministers of Taiwan National Taiwan University alumni National Cheng Kung University alumni Members of the 9th Legislative Yuan Democratic Progressive Party Members of the Legislative Yuan Tainan Members of the Legislative Yuan Taiwanese trade union leaders Tainan City Councilors Members of the 10th Legislative Yuan