Lee Shying-jow or Lee Hsiang-chou (; born 2 August 1952) is a Taiwanese general and diplomat. He is the incumbent Ambassador to Denmark, and was formerly the 4th Commanding General of the

Republic of China Army The Republic of China Army (ROCA), previously known as the Chinese Nationalist Army or Nationalist Revolutionary Army and unofficially as the Taiwanese Army, is the largest branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces. An estimated 80% of th ...

(ROCA), 8th Deputy Minister of

National Defense National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military attac ...

(MND), the 15th Director-General of the National Security Bureau (NSB) and the 2nd Minister of the

Veterans Affairs Council The Veterans Affairs Council (VAC; ) is a branch of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) with "responsibilities to assist in education assistance, employment assistance, medical care, home care and other general services" for reti ...

(VAC).

Early life

Lee Hsiang-chou was born in a

Military dependents' village A military dependents' village () is a community in Taiwan built in the late 1940s and the 1950s whose original purpose was to serve as provisional housing for soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines of the Republic of China Armed Forces, along ...

of the

Republic of China Air Force The Republic of China Air Force, retroactively known by its historical name the Chinese Air Force and unofficially referred to as the Taiwanese Air Force, is the military aviation branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces, currently based ...

called the Republican New Village (共和新村) at

Donggang, Pingtung Donggang Township or Tungkang Township () is an urban township in west-central Pingtung County, Taiwan. Located on Taiwan's western coastline, along the Taiwan Strait, it has one of Taiwan's largest fishing harbors. Dapeng Bay with its national ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, there was his home. His ancestral home was in

Xinxiang Xinxiang ( ; postal: Sinsiang) is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its southeast, Hebi and Anyang to its north, Jiaozuo to its west, and the ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Lee later entered the

Preparatory School right after his completion of junior high school at age 15. He then later graduated from the

Republic of China Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China' ...

in 1974 as a

Missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...

Officer. Lee also obtained his master's degree from the

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 ...

National Chung Hsing University National Chung Hsing University (NCHU; ) is a research-led comprehensive university in South District, Taichung, Republic of China. Currently, NCHU is among the four universities of the Taiwan Comprehensive University System, a research-led ...

and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

of the United States.

Military career

Early military position

Lee served as the Commander of

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

(ROCMP) from 1 June 2009 to 16 May 2011. He was promoted to General of the ROC Army on 16 May 2011 and appointed as the Vice Chief of the General Staff under Admiral

Lin Chen-yi Lin Chen-yi () is an admiral of the Republic of China Navy in Taiwan. He was the Chief of the General Staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces between 2009 and 2013, and also the last senior admiral/general in the military after the new law th ...

, the then Chief of the General Staff.

Army Commanding General

General Lee was appointed to success General Yang Tien-hsiao as the Commanding General of the ROC Army on 16 August 2011. On 16 July and 8 August 2013, General Lee tendered his resignation from his chief position and from the

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

due to the poor handling of the minister on the death scandal of Corporal Hung Chung-chiu, but was rejected by Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu and

Yen Ming Yen Ming (; born 14 November 1949) was the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 8 August 2013 to 30 January 2015. Education Yen graduated from the Republic of China Air Force Academy in Kaohsiung. Early career ...

. Both Kao and Yen asked him to stay in his post.

Deputy Minister of National Defense

In early April 2014, speaking to the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan, Lee said that if the People's Liberation Army (PLA) were to invade Taiwan, they need at least four months for assault preparation, thus translated to the amount of advance warning Taiwan needs in such scenario. In the event of cross-strait war, the command has to come from

Zhongnanhai Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council (central government) of China. Zhongn ...

, the headquarter of the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

, by the task force formation at the Central Military Commission. The next step would be recalling all of the Chinese envoys in Taiwan, execute economic preparations and tighten control of Taiwanese business people in

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. He added that Taiwan has already prepared relevant measures with other countries and military reserve would be called in such attack scenario. Military confidence building measure can only be built between ROC Armed Forces and PLA only if

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

renounces the use of force to achieve Chinese unification. The ROC Ministry of National Defense however would always remain neutral in any

cross-strait Cross-Strait relations (sometimes called Mainland–Taiwan relations, or Taiwan-China relations) are the relations between China (officially the People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). The relationship ...

issues, he added.

Political career

Veterans minister for the Tsai Administration

On 28 April 2016, Lee Hsiang-chou was designated to be the new Minister of the

. He then took office on 20 May 2016. Prior to assuming the position, Lee registered as a political independent, ending his affiliation with 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 ...

, which he had joined in 1969. In December 2016, on his way to visit

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

from Taiwan, Lee was denied stopover entry into

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

for the purpose of visiting veterans of the

Republic of China Armed Forces The Republic of China Armed Forces (ROC Armed Forces) are the armed forces of the Republic of China (ROC), once based in mainland China and currently in its remaining jurisdictions which include the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu ...

residing in the small island nation.

Ambassador to Denmark

Lee left the Veterans Affairs Council in February 2018, and was appointed Taiwan's representative to Denmark that October.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Shying-jow 1952 births Living people National Defense University (Republic of China) alumni Representatives of Taiwan to Denmark Republic of China Army generals Taiwanese Ministers of the Veterans Affairs Council