Chang Hsien-yao or Vincent Chang (Chinese: 張顯耀; pinyin: Zhāng Xiǎnyào; Wade–Giles: Chang1 Hsien3-yao4; born 6 November 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Special Deputy Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council of the Executive Yuan in September 2013 until August 2014 and concurrently as the Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in February 2014 until August 2014.
In 2000, he joined People First Party (PFP) and ever since had been working closely with the party Chairman, James Soong, serving as the Director of the policy center of PFP.
ARATS officers in Taiwan later will enjoy some certain degree of special rights which would not fall under ROC jurisdiction and granted some privileges in the discretion of ROC Cabinet. The bill is the base in which both sides sustain an equal and reciprocal relationship, Chang added. However, he also emphasized that ARATS branch office in Taiwan will never be the same like PRC Liaison Office in Hong Kong because Taiwan-Mainland China relations is completely different than Hong Kong-Mainland China relations.[7]
The cross-strait service trade agreement was signed on 21 June 2013 which consists of four chapters and twenty four articles. Under the agreement, 64 Taiwanese industries will be opened to Chinese Mainland investments, ranging from transportation, tourism and traditional Chinese medicine sectors. Meanwhile, 80 Chinese Mainland industries will be opened to Taiwanese investments, ranging from finance, retail, electronics, publishing and travel sectors.[10][11] Chang said that the signing of the trade will make Taiwan and Mainland China the most stable market in the world and serves as a path for Taiwan towards the membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Investment from Mainland China will also help Taiwan become more competitive.[citation needed]
SEF Vice Chairmanship and Secretary-General
In early February 2014, Chang was appointed to be the vice chairman and secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), replacing Kao Koong-lian who had earlier on tendered his resignation. Chang's appointed also made the promotion of SEF Maa Shaw-chang from Deputy Secretary-General to become Deputy Chairman to help Chang share the workload.[1]
On 16 August 2014, tendered his resignation from both MAC and SEF, citing family reasons as the reason. Lin Chu-chia, MAC Deputy Minister, was immediately appointed to replace Chang.[12]
Few days later on 21 August 2014, Chang held a press conference in Taipei responding to an allegation he received from the government that he had leaked national secrets to Mainland China thus that he was actually sacked from the MAC by Minister Wang Yu-chi. During the press conference, Chang said that he called on President Ma Ying-jeou to take care for himself because Ma had been 'hijacked' by a handful of people and deceived into believing allegations against him were fabricated by those people.[citation needed]
Chang was then being investigated by the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office for breaching the National Security Information Protection Act (Chinese: 國家安全機密保護法) for disclosing five confidential and secret pieces of information on cross-strait economics, trade and trade service agreements on at least two separate occasions. He was then barred from leaving Taiwan.[15][16]
On 25 August 2014, he appeared at the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office trying to clear his name from the spying allegation. After the interrogation, Chang was put into house arrest and listed as a defendant.[17] On 28 August, the Investigation Bureau approved a search warrant for Chang's residence and six other locations. In a different occasion, President Ma Ying-jeou threw his approval behind MAC Minister Wang Yu-chi's decision to sack Chang.[18]
On 10 February 2015 the Investigation Bureau dropped the charges against him, and Wang Yu-chi immediately announced his resignation from his post as MAC minister, stating that he disagreed with the decision but would respect it and take responsibility.[19]
Later political career
Chang announced that his bid to contest the Kuomintang nomination for the Taipei mayoralty in February 2018.[20][21]
