Johnny Chiang

Chiang Chi-chen MLY
江啟臣
Chiang in 2024
16th Vice President of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2024
President	Han Kuo-yu
Preceded by	Tsai Chi-chang
Member of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2012
Preceded by	Shyu Jong-shyong (Taichung County 4th district)
Constituency	Taichung VIII
10th Chairman of the Kuomintang
In office 9 March 2020 – 5 October 2021
Secretary General	William Tseng Lee Chien-lung
Preceded by	Lin Rong-te (acting)
Succeeded by	Eric Chu
Minority Leader of the Legislative Yuan
In office 14 June 2018 – 1 February 2019
Speaker	Su Jia-chyuan
Preceded by	Lin Te-fu
Succeeded by	William Tseng
27th Director-General of the Government Information Office
In office 24 December 2010 – 1 May 2011
Prime Minister	Wu Den-yih
Preceded by	Su Jun-pin [zh]
Succeeded by	Philip Yang [zh]
Personal details
Born	(1972-03-02) 2 March 1972 (age 54) Fengyuan, Taichung County (now Fengyuan District, Taichung), Taiwan
Party	Kuomintang
Education	National Chengchi University (BA) University of Pittsburgh (MA) University of South Carolina (PhD)
Military service
Branch/service	Republic of China Marine Corps
Years of service	1994–1996
Rank	Corporal

Chiang Chi-chen (Chinese: 江啟臣; pinyin: Jiāng Qǐchén; Wade–Giles: Chiang¹ Chʻi³-chʻên; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kang Khé-sîn; born 2 March 1972), also known by his English name Johnny Chiang, is a Taiwanese political scientist and politician who has served as the vice president of the Legislative Yuan since 2024.

Chiang served as an associate professor in Soochow University before his political career. He was the penultimate Director-General of the Government Information Office from 2010 to 2011, a post he resigned to become a member of the Legislative Yuan in which he has served since 2012. In March 2020, he was elected the Chairman of the Kuomintang and assumed office on 9 March until he was succeeded by Eric Chu on 5 October 2021. Chiang took office as vice president of the Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2024.

Chiang was born in Fengyuan, Taichung, on March 2, 1972. His father, Chiang Hai-chuan, was a farmer.^[1] He was raised by his grandparents in a mountainous area in rural Fengyuan; his grandfather was a village chief.^[2] Because he and his grandparents were speakers of Japanese, Chiang did not learn Taiwanese Mandarin until primary school.^[3] He is of Hakka Teochew descent.^[4]

After graduating first in his class from Taichung Municipal First Senior High School, where he was a track and field athlete,^[3] Chiang studied diplomacy at National Chengchi University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1994.^[5] He then was selected for the Republic of China Marine Corps and served in the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion during his compulsory military service.^[3] He was honorably discharged from the Army's special force with the rank of corporal.

Chiang completed his graduate studies in the United States. He earned a master's degree in international relations and political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998,^[6] then earned his Ph.D. in international relations from the University of South Carolina in 2002.^[7] His doctoral dissertation, completed under political science professor Donald J. Puchala, was titled, "Globalization and The Role of the State in Contemporary Political Economy: Taiwan and India in the 1980s and 1990s".^[8]

After receiving his doctorate, Chiang was a lecturer at the University of South Carolina from January 2002 to May 2002. He then returned to Taiwan and became an associate researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research and an assistant professor at Taipei University of Marine Technology from 2002 to 2003. From February 2003 to June 2003, he was a professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University before joining the faculty of Soochow University in July 2003 as an assistant professor of political science.^[9] He was promoted to an associate professor there in February 2007.^[10][11]

He was named the head of the Government Information Office in 2010.^[9] When Chiang was selected as a Kuomintang candidate for the legislature in April 2011,^[12] he resigned the GIO position and was replaced by Philip Yang [zh].^[13] Chiang was one of five former GIO officials to appear on the ballot.^[14] He won election in 2012, and again in 2016. Chiang was chosen as one of five conveners of the Legislative Yuan's constitutional amendment committee in 2015.^[15] He shared foreign and national defense committee convener duties with Liu Shih-fang in 2016.^[16] Chiang announced his intention to contest the Taichung mayoralty in October 2017, becoming the second Kuomintang politician after Lu Shiow-yen to declare interest in the position.^[17] It was reported in February 2018 that Chiang had narrowly finished second to Lu in three different public opinion polls that served as the Kuomintang's Taichung mayoral primary.^[18] Chiang declared his candidacy for the 2020 Kuomintang chairmanship election on 25 January 2020, ten days after Wu Den-yih resigned the position.^[19] Chiang defeated Hau Lung-pin in the leadership election, held on 7 March 2020.^[20][21] Chiang took office as Kuomintang chairman on 9 March 2020.^[22][23]

In March 2021, KMT chairman Johnny Chiang rejected the "one country, two systems" as a feasible model for Taiwan, citing Beijing's response to protests in Hong Kong as well as the value that Taiwanese place in political freedoms.^[24] In September of that year, Chiang lost his bid to retain the chairmanship, finishing third behind Eric Chu and Chang Ya-chung.

Chang won his fourth consecutive legislative term in 2024, and was subsequently elected Vice President of the 11th Legislative Yuan.^[25][26]

Chiang is married to Liu Tzu-ling, the daughter of former legislator Liu Shen-liang. He has two children.^[27] One of his uncles is Antonio Chiang [zh], a former National Security Council secretary-general.^[28]

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