Vice President Vincent Siew of Taiwan

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Original source: Rico Shen
Author: Rico Shen

Siew was elected a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1996 to 1997.

Siew is married to Susan Chu (朱俶賢 Zhū Shúxián) with three daughters: Ru-ting (蕭如婷), Jia-fen (蕭如芬), and Jhih-you (蕭至佑 Zhìyòu.

Siew is the former chairman of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (Siew submitted his resignation June 24, 2007 after his KMT vice-presidential nomination) and the incumbent Chairman of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation.

In May 2007, Siew was mentioned as a possible running mate for KMT presidential nominee Ma Ying-Jeou.

Siew is a founding delegate of the forum from 2001, and he attended once again in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-strait Common Market Fund.

Siew had met with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Bo'ao in 2001.

On April 12, 2008, Vincent Siew met with Hu Jintao at the Bo'ao Asia Forum as part of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation delegation, which also included other former and future government officials and business leaders from Taiwan.

Siew said he would make active efforts to fulfill the promises he made during the recent election after he took office next month, including pushing forward cross-Strait negotiations and financial market openings as well as relaxing restrictions for mainland tourist travel to Taiwan.

We will use the occasion to make more friends and exchange views,'' Siew said at the Taipei airport before boarding his plane.

Siew said such a meeting would depend on arrangements by the forum's hosts.

Siew expressed his hopes to deepen the understanding between the two sides and create a basis for common trust.

And as Frank Hsieh immediately pointed out, Siew was deeply involved in the now-discredited move toward BOT projects under Lee Teng-hui and Taiwan's accession to the WTO.

But when Siew ran on the Lien Chan ticket in 2000, Siew's presence on the ticket led to a whopping 23% of the vote in Chiayi City and County, where Siew is from.

More seriously though, Siew is just plain old.

In sum, Siew was an incredibly poor choice and one that highlights Ma's conservatism.

Siew is the current Vice President, having won the 2008 Presidential Elections on 22 March with running-mate Ma Ying-jeou.

Siew is expected to attend a round-table conference on cross-strait trade on Sunday in Boao, a scenic town on the island province of Hainan in South China.

Siew has long advocated the grand scheme of integrating the two economies across the Strait for mutual benefit.

They have to resort to dirty tricks,” Siew said of the DPP leaders, “because they have any issues to talk about.

In a counterattack, Siew said his common market has nothing to do with politics, while Hsieh’s insistence on “Constitutional One China” smacks of the political integration of Taiwan and China.

After pronouncing the withdrawal of the common market policy, Siew described Hsieh’s Constitutional One China as “de jure unification with China.

UpdatedSunday, March 23, 2008 0:00amTWN,The China Post news staffVincent Siew may be a busy VPTAIPEI, Taiwan -- Vincent Siew is not going to be just a man one heartbeat away from the presidency.

Siew joined the foreign service and was appointed consul in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1966.

An Eisenhower fellow in 1985, Siew was named to the Central Committee of the Kuomintang in 1988.

In 2000, Siew was Lien Chan’s running mate.

Siew is the incumbent chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation.

accidental deaths among children, as the number of local children who die in accidents remains high, Vice President Vincent Siew said Saturday.

Vincent Siew is a Professional Internet Network Marketer whose purpose is to care for others, to have so many friends whose number is impossible to count, to learn and to teach others more than what he is doing now.

I think Siew is the best running mate for Ma.

I think Siew was about as good a choice as Ma could make, given all the constraints on him.

In the article above, they claim that Siew was the minister of finance, although he has never held that position.

In their editorial that asks how much help Siew will be to Ma, they observe: The only real big election Siew has run in was the 2000 presidential election.

Consequently it is doubtful how connected Siew is and how much weight he carries in political circles in southern Taiwan.

Siew was not selected by Party insiders as a legislator-at-large, but won a bitterly-contested election against Chai Trong-rong in his native land of Jiayi.

But that loss does not mean that Siew is not a good campaigner.

No one could have won at the side of Lien Chan, who is probably Taiwan's most despised major politician (Chai would eventually win the Jiayi by-election in 1997 when Siew was moved up to Premier.

Ma, a former chairman of the KMT, said Siew was willing to work with the DPP administration only because of his concern for Taiwan's economy.

Siew is a serviceable weapon for any campaign based on the stagnant economy, and a strong, reassuring signal to global business and financial interests.

Siew is respected, but being respected is not the same as being popular, and word has it that he hates campaigning, a serious problem, since as the Veep candidate that will be his number 1 job (see this CNN story from 1995 in which he admits this out loud.

The problem with that symbolism of Taiwanese firmly under Mainlander is that it is an old one, and anyone inside or outside the party can read it -- yes, he is Taiwanese, but doesn't that just make it even clearer that the KMT will never pick a Taiwanese to be President? Siew also solves another set of problems faced by Ma: he had to pick a Veep candidate who would not threaten his own power -- Siew has no ambition to run things, and in any case, is too old -- and he had to pick a Veep whose personality would not outshine his own.

How useful in the campaign will Siew be? He won as a legislator, but after being promoted to Premier, in the 1997 elections in which the KMT was whipped by the DPP, Siew was unable to hold onto Jiayi for the KMT.

UPDATE: Feiren pointed out in a comment that Siew is distantly related to one of the small local factions in Jiayi, the Hsiao family.

While no one suggests that Vincient Siew is corrupt, his three distant Siew relatives -- who made possible his initial run for the Legislative Yuan in 1995 -- have a strong reputation as black elements who have become extremely rich and now typify the black and gold behavior of the KMT.

Another Taipei Times article notes: He also pointed out that Siew had recently appeared together in Siew's home county of Jiayi along with the speaker of the Jiayi City Council, Hsiao Teng-wang.

Hence, my reading of Siew is that his background as a Taiwanese will be of only limited help to the KMT.

This point was brought out in some of the lukewarm reactions to Siew from within the KMT and its allied parties: NPSU Chairman Lin Ping-kun noted that Siew comes from an impoverished family in Jiayi, giving him a background close to the grassroots, and said that even if it is not a plus, it is at least not a minus.

Overall, Siew is an excellent choice, given the constraints that Ma operates under, and given that the best choice, Wang Jin-pyng, refused to be second to Ma.

Even his age has its positives: the fact that Siew is a decade older than Ma will help reinforce Ma's own youthful image by comparison.

Just exactly what is Siew's supposed expertise? Essentially, Siew is an expert on state-sponsored development--naptha crackers, freeways, high speed rails and that sort of thing.

This may well gain Ma points in some quarters, but I don't think it bodes well for Taiwan's economy under Ma, because what we're getting is an old-school technocrat who simply doesn't understand that the main problem with Taiwan's economy is that it has long since outgrown the model Siew is familiar with.

Far from representing the heavy hand of state interventionism in the economy and pump-priming big-ticket spending as you and Feiren have described him, Siew is a champion of liberalization and supply-side economics.

politics? I agree that Siew has a done a good job pursuing liberalization policies in some areas.

If Ma wants to appeal to a small group of investors and businessmen who make $$ off government infrastructure projects, I think Siew was a great pick.

I really think, given Ma's innate conservatism, lack of forward vision, spine, and other leaderly qualities, that Siew was the best he could do.

Siew has emphasized that Taiwan is not a trouble-maker, and has tried to move the hearts of our American friends, believing there is hope to rebuild the relations between Taiwan and the US.

As far as the numbers and level of the US officials that Siew has already met is concerned, it can be concluded that the US sincerely welcomes Siew’s visit regardless of party affiliation.

Siew was the KMT's Vice Presidential candidate in the 2000 election.

Siew is the current vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 elections for the Republic of China, forming the Kuomintang ticket with presidential candidate Ma Ying-Jeou.

SiewChiayi CityLegislative YuanPremier of the Republic of ChinaNational Chengchi UniversityAPECkuala lumpurkuomintangSee moreNews About Vincent SiewVincent Siew had a news item on Live Search NewsUS inauguration tickets tough to come by: Yuandocument.

write(humane_date("2009-01-14 04:24:32"))Vincent Siew had 2 news items on Live Search NewsSCMP.

write(humane_date("2009-01-09 16:26:18"))Vincent Siew had 3 news items on Live Search News2nd UPDATE: Taiwan Panel Suggests Putting Acctg Rule On Holddocument.

Siew was born on January 3, 1939, in Chiayi City, Taiwan Province, the Republic of China (ROC.

Vice President Vincent Siew said Wednesday Taiwan people remain wary of engaging China mainly because Taiwan's eased policy toward China has not yet yielded obvious interests and Beijing has not responded.

Siew was born in Chiayi City in 1939.

Siew was also the running mate of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in the 2000 presidential election.

I think Siew has a good professional image.