Huang Kuo-chang


Huang Kuo-chang is a Taiwanese politician, activist, legal scholar, researcher and writer. He is one of the lead figures of the Sunflower Student Movement and joined the New Power Party shortly afterwards. He served as leader of the party from 2015 to 2019, and represented Taipei in the Legislative Yuan on behalf of the NPP between 2016 and 2020.

Early life

Huang Kuo-chang was born into a traditional farming family in Xizhi Township, Taipei County. He graduated from National Taiwan University in 1995, and he continued his education at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for a master's degree and a doctorate.

Political career

One of the lead figures of the Sunflower Student Movement, Huang joined the New Power Party in May 2015, and was named acting chairperson in July. That same month, Huang announced that he would enter the legislative election in 2016 as a New Power Party candidate for the 12th constituency of New Taipei City. The constituency, which includes Xizhi, Ruifang, Jinshan, Wanli, Pingxi, Shuangxi and Gongliao, was represented by incumbent Kuomintang legislator Lee Ching-hua. In September, the NPP announced that Huang would serve on a seven-member committee of party leaders, which included Freddy Lim and Neil Peng. As the Democratic Progressive Party did not fill in candidates in the constituency, in order to support Huang. In the elections held on 16 January 2016, Huang beat the incumbent Lee and won the seat in the legislature. After taking office, Huang was assigned to the Finance Committee.
Court proceedings against 21 protesters began in June 2016. First to be charged with various offenses included Chen Wei-ting, Huang Kuo-chang, and Lin Fei-fan. In a March 2017 Taipei District Court decision, Chen, Huang and Lin were acquitted of incitement charges.
On 16 December 2017, a recall election was over his support for same-sex marriage. Votes in favor of the recall outnumbered those against, but fell short of the required threshold, one-fourth of the district's total electorate. Huang stepped down as chairman of the New Power Party in January 2019. In June 2019, Huang stated that he would leave the New Power Party if it became a "sidekick" of the Democratic Progressive Party, but he denied that he was forming a new political party. Huang stated in August 2019 that he would support the 2020 legislative campaign of Lai Chia-lun, who sought to succeed Huang as the legislator representing New Taipei 12. Huang was offered a position on the New Power proportional representation party list. Though the party backed his return to the Legislative Yuan, it later explored drafting Huang to contest the 2020 Taiwan presidential election. Huang refused to stand in the election, and the New Power Party later announced that it would not nominate a presidential candidate. Huang was ranked fourth on the New Power Party list of at-large legislative candidates. The NPP won over seven percent of the party list vote, allowing only three at-large legislative candidates to take office.

Publications