Yu Shyi-kun

Yu Shyi-kun (Chinese: 游錫堃; born 25 April 1948), also romanized You Si-kun, is a Taiwanese politician serving as a member and the president of the Legislative Yuan. He led the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as chairman from 2006 to 2007. He previously served as Premier from 2002 to 2005. As one of the founding members of the DPP, he is seen as a loyalist of President Chen Shui-bian. He is a strong advocate of Taiwan independence.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yu.

Yu Shyi-kun
游錫堃
President of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2020
Vice President	Tsai Chi-chang
Preceded by	Su Chia-chyuan
Member of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2020
Constituency	Party-list
11th Chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party
In office 15 January 2006 – 21 September 2007
Preceded by	Annette Lu (acting)
Succeeded by	Chai Trong-rong (acting)
Premier of the Republic of China
In office 1 February 2002 – 1 February 2005
Preceded by	Chang Chun-hsiung
Succeeded by	Frank Hsieh
Vice Premier of the Republic of China
In office 20 May 2000 – 27 July 2000
Premier	Tang Fei
Preceded by	Liu Chao-shiuan
Succeeded by	Chang Chun-hsiung
Yilan County magistrate
In office 20 December 1989 – 20 December 1997
Preceded by	Chen Ding-nan
Succeeded by	Liu Shou-ch'eng
Member of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly
In office 20 December 1981 – 20 December 1989
Personal details
Born	(1948-04-25) 25 April 1948 Dongshan, Yilan County, Taiwan
Nationality	Taiwan (Republic of China)
Political party	Democratic Progressive Party (1984–present) Chinese Youth Party (1966–1975)[1]
Spouse(s)	Yang Pao-yu
Alma mater	National Chung Hsing University Tunghai University

Yu Shyi-kun
Traditional Chinese	游錫堃
Simplified Chinese	游锡堃
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yóu Xíkūn Southern Min Hokkien POJ Iû Siah-khun

Personal background

Born in Taihe Village (太和村), Dongshan Township, Yilan County, Yu was raised in a poor tenant farming family.[2] When he was 13, he studied at the Taiwan provincial Yilan High school (which today is the National Yilan Senior High School), his house was destroyed by flood waters during typhoon Pamela, and his father died of tuberculosis in the same year. He quit junior high school to work full-time on his family farm.

At 19, he studied at the supplementary night school of the Lotung Commercial High School. He moved to Taipei to enroll in the supplementary school of the Hsihu Commercial and Industrial High School. He studied international commerce at the Chihlee Institute of Technology (致理商專) and public administration at the National Chung Hsing University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in politics in Tunghai University in 1985 at the age of 37.

Rise in politics

In 1981 he was elected a member of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly for Yilan County. Yu, Su Tseng-chang, and Hsieh San-sheng made the so-called "iron triangle" in the Assembly. The three were the only members ever to resign from the Assembly.

From 1983 to 1984 he was the Tangwai Secretary-General. He became Convener of Tangwai National Election Backing Committee in 1986. As a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party, he was a member of its Central Committee from 1984 to 1986 and its Central Standing Committee from 1986 to 1990 when he was elected the Magistrate of Yilan County, during which he was a member of the Educational Reform Committee of the Executive Yuan from 1994 to 1996. In his second term as magistrate, Environmental Protection (環保立縣), Tourism (觀光立縣), Information Promotion (資訊立縣), and Culture (文化立縣) were his four main goals in administration. The successful planning and execution let him ranked the first one of 27 mayors/magistrates in Taiwan. After the completion of his two terms as magistrate in 1997, he was in 1998 appointed Chairman of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation by then Mayor Chen Shui-bian. He resigned in 1999 to become Secretary-General of the Democratic Progressive Party.

He was the chief spokesman for the DPP campaign in the 2000 presidential election. With Chen Shui-bian's election to the presidency, he was appointed Vice Premier under Premier Tang Fei.

In July 2000, four construction workers were trapped by the rising floodwaters of Pachang Creek. As local and central government authorities squabbled for three hours over who would send out a rescue helicopter, the men drowned. In the public outrage that ensued, officials up the chain of command, including Premier Tang, tendered their resignations. Vice Premier Yu, who was also chairman of the Committee of Disaster Relief and Prevention, had his resignation accepted.

Six months later, Yu rejoined the administration as Secretary-General to the Office of the President and served until his promotion to the premiership on February 1, 2002.

Premiership

As premier, Yu defended the administration's position on the peace referendum and promoted a NT$610.8 billion arms procurement package in 2004. He caused some minor controversy when he used the designation "Taiwan, ROC" on an official visit to Honduras. Chen later said he preferred "Taiwan." In September 2004, he directed the government to refer to the People's Republic of China in official documents as simply "China" as opposed to "mainland China" or "Communist China" as was previously done in order to highlight a "separate Taiwanese identity." This move was not endorsed by the Presidential Office and the Mainland Affairs Council clarified that it would only apply to internal documents.

Yu and his cabinet resigned en masse following the pan-Green Coalition failure to gain a majority in the 2004 legislative elections. In the ensuing cabinet shuffle, Yu was returned to the presidential office as secretary-general and succeeded as premier by Frank Hsieh.

On January 15, 2006 he was elected chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party with 54% of the vote.[3]

Yu was a candidate for the DPP nomination for the 2008 presidential election. He secured 22,211 of the 140,720 votes, and declared his withdrawal in favor of former premier Frank Hsieh, who won 62,849 votes.[4]

Corruption charges and acquittal

On September 21, 2007, Yu, along with Vice President Annette Lu and National Security Office secretary-general Mark Chen, were separately indicted on charges of corruption by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Taiwan.[5] Yu was accused of embezzlement and special fund abuse of about US$70,000. He resigned his post as chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party later that day.[5] On July 2, 2012, all three were acquitted of all charges.[6]

2014 New Taipei City mayoralty election

On 29 November 2014, Yu lost the New Taipei City mayoralty election to his opponent Eric Chu of the Kuomintang.[7]

2014 New Taipei City Mayoral Election Result
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Yu Shyi-kun	DPP	934,774	48.78%
2	Li Chin-shun (李進順)	Independent	22,207	1.16%
3	Eric Chu	KMT	959,302	50.06%

Later political career

Yu was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2020, securing an at-large seat on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party.[8] He was elected President of the Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2020, defeating Kuomintang lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao and succeeding Su Jia-chyuan.[9][10]

Personal life

Yu is the founder of Kavalan Journal (噶瑪蘭雜誌), which is named after the Kavalan Taiwanese aborigines.

With Yang Pao-yu, whom he married in 1978, he has two sons. His mother, Huang Shou-chu, died in December 2002.[11]

References

1. "游錫堃". Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council. Archived from the original on December 22, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
2. "Yu Shyi-kun". Government Information Office. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
3. "Taiwan's top party picks new boss". BBC. January 15, 2006. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
4. "Frank Hsieh wins DPP primaries". The China Post. Taiwan. May 7, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
5. Jane Rickards (September 22, 2007). "Taiwan's Vice President, 2 Others Charged With Corruption". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
6. Huang, Yi-han; Chen, Ann (July 2, 2012). "Former vice president found not guilty of special fund abuse". Central News Agency. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
7. Pan, Jason (November 30, 2014). "Eric Chu survives with razor-thin majority". Taipei Times. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
8. Lin, Sean (January 13, 2020). "2020 Elections: Yu Shyi-kun a popular choice for next speaker". Taipei Times. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
9. Chen, Chun-hua; Yeh, Joseph (February 1, 2020). "DPP's You elected legislative speaker (update)". Central News Agency. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
10. Lin, Sean (February 2, 2020). "DPP's Yu Shyi-kun elected legislative speaker". Taipei Times. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
11. "Premier consoled following mother's death". Taipei Times. December 8, 2002. Retrieved July 9, 2017.

Political offices
Preceded by Chen Ding-nan	Magistrate of Yilan County 1989–1997	Succeeded by Liu Shou-cheng
Preceded by Chang Chun-hsiung	Premier of the Republic of China 2002–2005	Succeeded by Frank Hsieh
Preceded by Su Chia-chyuan	President of the Legislative Yuan 2020-present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Annette Lu (acting)	Chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party 2006–2007	Succeeded by Chai Trong-rong (acting)