Wei Yao-chien

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Wei Yao-chien
魏耀乾
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office
1 February 1990 – 31 January 1996
ConstituencyTainan
Personal details
Born (1950-02-05) 5 February 1950 (age 74)
Jiali, Tainan County, Taiwan
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations
Home Party
Democratic Progressive Party
Alma materUniversity of Essex
National Taiwan University
Occupationpolitician
Professiondentist

Wei Yao-chien (Chinese: 魏耀乾; pinyin: Wèi Yàoqián; Wade–Giles: Wei4 Yao4-chʻien2; born 5 February 1950) is a Taiwanese politician.

Early life and career[edit]

Wei was born on 5 February 1950 in Tainan to a conservative family with strong ties to the Kuomintang.[1][2] He attended the University of Essex and completed further study at Harvard University as well as Yale University before he was trained as a dentist.[1][2] He later earned a master's degree in political science at National Taiwan University.[1]

Political career[edit]

Wei turned against the Kuomintang after Fang Su-min and Lin Yi-hsiung's twin daughters were stabbed to death [zh] in 1979.[2] His friendship with Frank Hsieh also contributed to Wei's political beliefs.[2] Wei represented Tainan for two terms on the Legislative Yuan, from 1990 to 1996, as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party.[2][3] During his legislative tenure, Wei became known for fighting fellow lawmakers.[2] Wei alluded to his dental practice in describing physical confrontation attempts to "pull the tiger's teeth."[2] Wei left the Democratic Progressive Party to run an independent campaign for the Tainan County magistracy in 2001. Though a July 2001 opinion poll showed that Wei had not garnered much support,[4] a potential split in the Pan-Green Coalition's voter base between Wei and Su Huan-chih was still considered damaging to Su.[2][5] Wei's campaign was run by former Tainan deputy magistrate Lin Wen-ding.[6] Wei was placed on the Home Party list during the 2008 legislative elections, but not elected to the Legislative Yuan.[7] He contested the Lienchiang County magistracy as an independent in 2018.[8][1]

2018 Lienchang County mayoral results[9]
No. Candidate Party Votes Percentage
1 Su Po-hao (蘇柏豪) Tree Party 927 12.51%
2 Chu Hsiu-chen (朱秀珍) Independent 1,284 17.33%
3 Wei Yao-chien Independent 336 4.54%
4 Liu Cheng-ying Kuomintang 4,861 65.62%
Total voters 10,773 
Valid votes  7,408
Invalid votes  
Voter turnout  68.76%

Activism[edit]

In 2006, Wei served as executive director of the Million Voices Against Corruption, President Chen Must Go campaign led by Shih Ming-teh.[10] In this position, Wei acted as a spokesman and represented the campaign to the Legislative Yuan.[11][12] In February 2014, Wei founded the Jiawu Regime Change organization alongside fellow former legislators Chen Wan-chen [zh] and Payen Talu, among others, to advocate Taiwan independence.[13] Wei was in attendance at Tsai Ing-wen's presidential inauguration on 20 May 2016, alongside a group of protestors advocating for the replacement of the Constitution of the Republic of China with a Taiwan-centric supreme law.[14] In 2018, Wei and another former legislator, Liang Mu-yang [zh], led a demonstration on the 71st anniversary of the 228 incident, again in support of a rewritten constitution for Taiwan.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "福建省連江縣第七屆縣長、縣議員選舉 選舉公報" (PDF) (in Chinese). Central Election Commission. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Huang, Joyce (20 November 2001). "Dec. 1 elections: Ex-DPP heavyweight goes it alone". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  3. ^ "Wei Yao-chien (2)". Legislative Yuan. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Tainan County opinion poll causes political spat". Taipei Times. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  5. ^ Chiu, Yu-tzu. "Dec. 1 elections: Candidates search far and wide for votes in Kinmen". Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  6. ^ Huang, Joyce (20 November 2001). "Dec. 1 elections: Infighting threatens DPP candidate's chances for victory". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  7. ^ "〈快訊〉不分區立委開票結果 一覽表" (in Chinese). TVBS. 12 January 2008. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  8. ^ "馬祖大未來/魏耀乾:解除軍事武裝 馬祖直屬總統府 成兩岸「和平特區」". Yahoo! News Taiwan. 2 November 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  9. ^ "Lienchiang County Municipal Mayor Election". Archived from the original on 25 November 2018.
  10. ^ Ko, Shu-ling (1 September 2006). "Pan-blues want their Shih sit-in donations back". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  11. ^ Mo, Yan-chih; Ko, Shu-ling (28 September 2006). "Anti-Chen camp returns to Taipei Railway Station". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  12. ^ Wang, Flora (31 October 2006). "Shih campaign proposes corruption statute amendment". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  13. ^ Wang, Chris (27 May 2014). "New group to highlight nation's missing history". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  14. ^ Gerber, Abraham (21 May 2016). "Tsai Inauguration: Demonstrators gather to be heard by new president". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  15. ^ Pan, Jason (24 February 2018). "Local groups hold 228 memorial in Tsai's hometown". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2019.