Frank Hsieh

Frank Hsieh Chang-ting (Chinese: 謝長廷; born May 18, 1946) is a Taiwanese politician and former defense attorney who served as Ambassador of Taiwan to Japan from 2016 to 2024. A cofounder of the Democratic Progressive Party, he has served on the Taipei City Council, the Legislative Yuan, as the mayor of Kaohsiung City, and as the Premier of Taiwan (President of the Executive Yuan) under president Chen Shui-bian. Hsieh was the DPP nominee in the 2008 presidential election and was defeated by Ma Ying-jeou.

Born in Dadaocheng, Taipei, in 1946, Hsieh was a gymnast in high school and worked as a food vendor before college. He received a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from National Taiwan University. Hsieh then obtained a master's degree and later completed doctoral coursework (all but dissertation) in jurisprudence at the Graduate School of Law of Kyoto University in Japan. He was a practicing attorney from 1969 to 1981, serving as a defense attorney in the martial courts following the Kaohsiung Incident of 1980.

Prior to the 1986 establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party, Hsieh, Chen Shui-bian and Lin Cheng-chieh were known as the "three musketeers" of the tangwai movement. Hsieh cofounded the party and was the one who proposed its current name. He has also served as its chairman twice. A two-time Taipei City councilor from 1981 to 1988, Hsieh was then elected to the Legislative Yuan, the next year, and won reelection in 1992. Instead of running for reelection in the 1995 legislative elections, Hsieh chose to run in the 1994 Taipei mayoral election, and lost a primary to eventual winner Chen Shui-bian. In September 1995, Peng Ming-min and Hsieh were placed on the Democratic Progressive Party ticket for the 1996 presidential election. They finished second with 21.1% of the vote.

In 1997, Hsieh successfully negotiated the surrender of the gunman in the Alexander family hostage crisis, raising his national profile.

To the surprise of many observers, Hsieh won the 1998 Kaohsiung City mayoral election, and defeated the Kuomintang incumbent, Wu Den-yih, by 4,565 votes. His administration focused on improving water quality in surrounding rivers as well as a general overhaul of the port of Kaohsiung. Hsieh supported placing the port, at the time run largely by the central government, under the jurisdiction of Kaohsiung City Government. Under Hsieh's leadership efforts to clean up the heavily polluted Love River began in 1999, and ended in 2002. He was also largely responsible for the establishment of the Kaohsiung Metro. These achievements helped Hsieh earn strong support among Kaohsiung citizens. He was re-elected for a four-year term in 2002. Hsieh was projected to win easily, but People First Party chair James Soong publicly supported Kuomintang candidate Huang Jun-ying, which helped Huang earn more votes. Hsieh defeated Huang by 24,838 votes (3.22%).

In January 2005, Hsieh was appointed premier, forcing him to leave his post as mayor of Kaohsiung. Chen Chi-mai succeeded him as acting mayor.

Kuomintang politicians asked Hsieh to step down from the premiership shortly after the Kaohsiung MRT foreign workers scandal broke. Hsieh eventually resigned as premier in the aftermath of the 2005 "Three-in-One" elections, which the DPP lost in a landslide.

As the DPP candidate for the 2006 Taipei Mayoral election, Hsieh lost the race to KMT candidate Hau Lung-pin by 166,216 votes (12.92%). The loss was largely expected, as Taipei was considered a Kuomintang stronghold.