Chang Ching-sen (; born 8 October 1959) is a Taiwanese politician and devoted to the issues of resolving the

North-South divide in Taiwan ''North-South'' ( hy, Հյուսիս-Հարավ) or ''Four Buddies and the Bride'' is an Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNb ...

Early life

Chang obtained his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in civil engineering 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 ...

in 1982 and 1991, respectively.

Political career

In the mid-2000s, Chang was the vice chairman of the

Council for Economic Planning and Development The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD; ) was a government agency responsible for drafting overall plans for national economic development in Taiwan (ROC). It also assessed development projects, proposals and programmes submitted ...

. He served as an advisor to

Ko Wen-je Ko Wen-je (; born 6 August 1959), also known by his nickname, Ko P (), is a Taiwanese politician and physician. Ko was mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022, and Chairman of the Taiwan People's Party since 2019. Before becoming mayor, he was a docto ...

's 2014 Taipei mayoral campaign. He was named a policy advisor to

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...

's 2016 presidential bid. After Tsai won, her designated premier

Lin Chuan Lin Chuan (; born 13 December 1951) is a Taiwanese economist and politician who served as Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2017 under President Tsai Ing-wen. He served as Minister of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and M ...

named Chang to the cabinet as a minister without portfolio on 7 April 2016. Three weeks before he took office on 20 May, Chang made controversial comments on Facebook about an urban renewal project in

Shilin District Shilin District (also spelled Shihlin District, zh, t=士林區, p=Shìlínqū, poj=Sū-lîm-khu) is a district of Taipei. The central command center of the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) is located in Shilin. History The name ''Shilin'' w ...

. He apologized via Facebook two days after making the post, but later chose to deactivate his account on the social media platform.

Cross-strait relations

In September 2016 Chang made an unofficial statement that Mainland Chinese tourists are Taiwan's most needed friends, and to the Taiwanese that there is a difference between the Mainland Chinese people and the Mainland Chinese government.

References

1959 births Living people Local executives of places in Taiwan Government ministers of Taiwan Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Yunlin County National Taiwan University alumni {{Taiwan-politician-stub