Peng Tso-kwei (; born 8 February 1947) is a Taiwanese politician who served as head of the

Council of Agriculture The Council of Agriculture (COA, ) is the official government body in the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Executive Yuan in charged with overseeing affairs related to agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry and food affairs. CAO is a ...

from 1997 to 1999.

Early life and education

Peng was born in

Beipu Beipu Township (; Hakka: ''Pet-phû-hiông'') is a rural township in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Beipu is well known in Taiwan as a center of Hakka culture, especially for production of ''dongfang meiren'' tea and its special Hakkanese blends of te ...

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County (Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, where ...

, on 8 February 1947. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in agriculture from

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 un ...

and completed on the school's track team. Peng completed a Ph.D from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. He then returned to NCHU as a professor.

Political career

Peng took office as head of the

on 15 May 1997. In February 1998, Taiwan reached an agreement to join the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

, but had to make adjustments unpopular with hog farmers, namely opening the nation's market to foreign meats. Peng announced short term losses for the agricultural sector in Taiwan, but vowed to aid livestock farmers. He had backed a first draft of revisions to the Agricultural Development Law as proposed in 1999, but pulled his support after the Council of Agriculture made further changes. 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 ...

legislative caucus proposed another set of amendments, and Peng resigned his position on 6 December 1999 in protest. Peng's resignation was approved the next day and Lin Hsiang-nung was promoted as Peng's successor. After the KMT version of the bill passed 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 January 2000, Peng released a statement critical of the newly promulgated law. After the end of his tenure as head of the COA, Peng has written for the ''Taipei Times'' on the subject of agriculture. He is against the construction of housing on agricultural land, as well as the use of

ractopamine Ractopamine () is an animal feed additive used to promote leanness and increase food conversion efficiency in farmed animals in several countries, but banned in others. Pharmacologically, it is a phenol-based TAAR1 agonist and β adrenoreceptor ...

in livestock.

Academic career

Peng's appointment as president of National Chung Hsing University drew controversy in September 2000, as he was accused of plagiarism and subsequently investigated. Despite opposition from faculty, he took office as the president of the institution in October 2000, only to be removed from office by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

in January 2001. Peng became president of TransWorld Institute of Technology in February 2001. He was named a department chair at Taichung Healthcare and Management University in August 2003. In 2005, he began teaching at Asia University. He was named the president of

Chung Chou University of Science and Technology Chung Chou University of Science and Technology (CCUT; ) is a private university located in Yuanlin City, Changhua County, Taiwan. History CCUT was originally established as Chung Chou Vocational Institute of Engineering in 1969. In 1991, the s ...

in 2007. In 2010, Peng was succeeded by Hwang Jenq-Jye.

Personal

Peng is of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

descent. His daughter was the actress Cindy Yang. She committed suicide at her

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

home on 21 April 2015, by inhaling helium.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peng, Tso-kwei Living people National Chung Hsing University alumni University of Illinois alumni Presidents of universities and colleges in Taiwan Taiwanese politicians of Hakka descent Academic staff of the National Chung Hsing University Academic staff of Asia University (Taiwan) 1947 births Taiwanese Ministers of Agriculture Taiwanese agriculturalists