Chao Shou Po

Birth and education

Chao Shou-Po was born in March 1941 to a farming family in the countryside in what is now Lukang Township, Changhua County, Taiwan. In 1945, Taiwan was transferred from Japanese rule to the Nationalist Government of China and in 1947 Chao started his education. He graduated from the Tsaokang Elementary School of Lukang Township in 1953. In the same year, through a very competitive entrance examination, he was admitted to and enrolled at the junior department of the very prestigious Taichung First High School in Taichung. In 1956 he finished his junior high school education and again through a highly competitive entrance examination he entered the senior department of the same Taichung First High School.

Upon his completion of senior high school education in 1959, he took part in the extremely competitive Combined Entrance Examination for Universities and Colleges in Taiwan and was granted admission to the Zoology Department of the highly prestigious National Taiwan University. At the same time, he also passed the entrance examination of the Central Police College (now Central Police University). In August 7, 1959, a big flood swept central part of Taiwan and Chao's family suffered a very heavy property and financial loss. In order to ease the financial burden of his parents, Chao chose to enroll and study at the Central Police College which provided free tuition, books, board and lodging and a monthly allowance for students. He graduated first in his class in 1963 with a Bachelor of Law degree from the Central Police College.

After serving as an inspector at the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration and completing one-year ROTC military service in the army, Chao passed the highly competitive examination for the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Scholarship for Studying Abroad in 1965. He enrolled at the College of Law of the University of Illinois, U. S. A. in 1967 for a mater degree. In 1968, he got the Mater of Comparative Law (M.C.L.) degree from the University of Illinois with Professor Wayne R. LaFave as his thesis advisor. Immediately after his completion of the master's degree, Chao was admitted to the doctoral program in the University of Illinois College of Law. He completed his doctoral study and was conferred upon the Doctor of the Science of Law (S. J. D. or J. S. D.) degree in 1972 from the University of Illinois with Professor Peter Hay as his dissertation advisor.

Chao has been given the Outstanding Alumnus Award by all the Schools he attended from the elementary school to the University of Illinois College of Law.

Career in governmental services

Chao has a long career in governmental services in Taiwan from the 1970s to the 2000s. He became the Commissioner of the Department of Information of the Taiwan Provincial Government in 1976 at the age of 35, concurrently the Spokesman of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the youngest Provincial Government Department Commissioner in history up to then. Before that he had been the Director-General from 1974 to 1976 of the School Youth Service Department of the Headquarters of the quasi-governmental China Youth Corps, a very politically influential youth movement organization in the 1950s through 1980's in Taiwan founded by Chiang Ching-kuo who was Premier from 1972 to 1978 and President from 1978 to 1988 of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

In January through March 1979 Chao was designated by the national government as a member of a special mission headed by Political Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Hsi-kun to go to Washington D. C. to negotiate with representatives of the U.S. State Department including Richard Holbrooke and Roger Sullivan a new arrangement of relations between Taiwan and the United States after the U.S. switched its formal diplomatic relations from Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan to the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Chinese mainland. The negotiation resulted in the enactment by the U.S. Congress of the Taiwan Relations Act which has been one of the most important guidelines for U.S. policy toward Taiwan and has become the major foundation for the current Taiwan-U.S. relations. For his contributions to the negotiation and the distinguished services he had demonstrated in the government, Chao was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in 1979 by the Junior Chamber International, TAIWAN.

In October 1979, Chao was appointed as Commissioner of the Council of the Taiwan Provincial Government. He was Commissioner of the Department of Social Affairs of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1981 to 1987; during this period, Chao initiated many innovative programs and projects to upgrade and expand the social welfare services, employment security, occupational health and safety, labor insurance, community development in the Province of Taiwan, making great contributions to the improvement of the well-being of the people, especially the employed and the low-income people.

In February 1989, Chao was appointed as the Labor Minister (officially called at that time the Chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs of the Executive Yuan, the Council now has been changed to Ministry of Labor) of the National Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan), a post he held until December 1994, making him the longest-serving labor minister until now in Taiwan. When he was Labor Minister, Chao modernized labor legislation; making sure that all labor laws were 100% implemented; improved work conditions for the employed; raised the minimum wage every year; enhanced the occupational health and safety; expanded programs for employment services and vocational training; strengthened labor insurance protection; opened job market for alien workers for the first time in the country's history, enacting the country's first law governing the importation, regulation and protection of alien workers. He maintained a good and reasonable balance between the employers and the employed and helped the labor unions to function more effectively and properly.

In December 1994, Chao became the Secretary-General of the Cabinet headed by Premier Lien Chan, a post he held until June 1997 when he was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio after a cabinet reshuffle. He was in charge of the review of the legislative proposals and governmental programs as submitted by the various ministries to the cabinet in the areas of social welfare, labor affairs, justice, youth affairs, police and internal affairs when he was Minister without Portfolio. Chao was made the Governor of the Province of Taiwan from December 1998 to May 2000 with the duty to restructure the Taiwan Provincial Government. He retired from the governmental service in May 2000 after his party, the Kuomintang, was defeated in the 2000 Presidential Election.

In 2008, Chao was appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou of the ROC as the Presidential National Policy Advisor, a post he held until January 2011 when President Ma appointed him as the Senior Advisor to the President of the Republic of China, a post he has held since then.

Party politics

Chao Shou-Po has involved actively also in the party affairs in the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), the ruling party from 1949 to 2000 and from 2008 until now, in the Republic of China on Taiwan. He was a Central Committee member from 1980 to 2001, a Central Standing Committee (equivalent of Political Bureau) member from 1996 to 2000 of the Kuomintang. He served as the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Information and Propaganda (1979 to 1981), Director-General of the Department of Social Affairs (1987 to 1989) and Director-General of the Department of Organization (2000 to 2001) of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang during the party chairmanship respectively of Chiang Ching-kuo, Lee Teng-hui and Lien Chan. Chao has been a Presidium Member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Kuomintang since 2001.

Services in media, professional baseball, and civic organizations

Chao was the Chairman of the Board of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), the largest broadcasting institution in Taiwan, from 2002 to 2005 and has been the host of a special Sunday commentary program called "Talk Everything for Taiwan" at the BCC since 2005.

Chao was the Commissioner of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan from 2006 to 2012; during his term as the Commissioner, he successfully persuaded the government to give more incentives for the promotion of professional sports and for the enactment of stricter law to prevent illegal gambling regarding professional sports.

Chao was President of National Life Saving Association, R. O. C. from 1995 to 2001; President of the National Council on Social Welfare, R.O.C. of the International Council on Social Welfare(ICSW) from 1995 to 2004; He was Chairman of World Lung Kang Association( a worldwide Association of the Liu, Chang, Kuan and Chao Families) from 2003 to 2006; He was Chairman of Taiwan Chamber of Industry and Commerce from 2011 to 2015 and has been Honorary Chairman of the Cross-Strait Business Development Council since 2009.

Scouting activities

Chao has been very actively involved in the Scout movement and world Scouting activities. He was a national council member in the Scouts of China in Taiwan from the 1970s until the 2010s. Chao was the Chairman and the Chief Commissioner of the General Association of Scouts of China (Taiwan) from 2007 to 2013. He has been the Chairman of the Board of the Scouts of China Foundation (Taiwan) since 2007.

Chao has participated many important international Scouting events including the 26th World Scout Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1977; the 27th World Scout Conference in 1979 in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom; the 38th World Scout Conference in Jeju Island, Korea in 2008; the 39th World Scout Conference in Curitiba, Brazil in 2011; and the 40th World Scout Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2014. He also took part in several World Scout Jamborees including the 14th World Scout Jamboree in Lillehammer, Norway in 1975; the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 in Chelmsford, Essex, England, U.K.; the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby, Sweden in 2011; and the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Kirarahama, Yamaguchi, Japan in 2015.

Chao is a 2003 recipient of the Bronze Wolf Award of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the highest honor in the World Scout Movement.

In 2009, Chao was elected at the 23rd Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a member of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Committee for a six-year term. Chao became Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Committee through committee election at the 24th Regional Asia-Pacific Scout Conference in November 2012 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, he served as the Committee Chairman until November 2015. After that he has been the President of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Foundation Management Committee.

Teaching, writing and publications

Chao has devoted quite a lot of time to teaching at the universities in Taiwan since he returned to Taiwan after his completion of doctoral education in the United States. He was a Professor of Law at the Central Police College from 1972 to 1977, teaching Constitution, International Law and Criminal Law.

When he began his governmental service in the 1970s, he continued his teaching as an adjunct professor in several universities including the Tunghai University and National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, National Chengchi University, National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University in Taipei, teaching Private International Law, Public International Law, Commercial Law, Labor Law, Labor Policy, Constitution and Human Resources Development and Management.

Since 2002, Chao has taught at the Graduate School of Management of I-Shou University in Kaohsiung as a Chair Professor. He has also taught International Criminal Law at the Institute of the Law of Sea of the National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung and the Doctorate Program of Department of Industrial Education of the National Changhua University of Education in Changhua in central Taiwan.

Chao has published many articles regarding social welfare, labor policy, labor law, international law, criminal law and has written and published in Chinese the following books: (1.) A Comparative Study of Choice of Law Rules Concerning Domestic Relations in Conflict of Laws （1977）; (2.) Law and Innovation（1980）; (3.) Social Policy, Family Welfare and Community Development（1986）; (4.) Social Problems and Social Welfare（1990）; (5.) Labor Policy and Labor Problems（1992）;(6.) The Winning Philosophy of Life Management（2004）；(7.) Getting Involved─My Recollections & Observations of Studying in U.S., Now & Then (2004); (8.) My European Diary—What I Saw and Thought of My 13 Trips to Europe for the Past 30 Years (2005); (9.) Appointment with the Youth—Chao Shou-Po Talks with Experts on Youth Problems (2005); (10.).The Critical Moments in My 70 Years of Life—A Memoir (2011) and (11.) Notes on Scouting—My Experiences in and Observations on the Scout Movement(2012).Mr. Chao now is writing books on International Criminal Law, International Labor Law and Comparative Industrial Relations.