Yang Wenhua

    

His Excellency Yang Wenhua
楊文華
Premier of the Republic of China
In office 1 January 2000 – 20 May 2004
President	Ren Longyun
Preceded by	Qi Ronghua as Premier of the People's Republic of China
Succeeded by	Han Zhanshu
First Secretary of the Secretariat of the CCP
In office 11 July 1996 – 23 December 1999
Preceded by	Guo Xiaodu
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 8 July 1990 – 12 March 1996
Preceded by	Xi Weizhao
Succeeded by	Li Zhicheng
Personal details
Born	(1951-11-10) November 10, 1951 Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Political party	Democratic Progressive (2005–present)
Other political affiliations	Communist (1972–2000) Independent (2000–2005)
Education	Tsinghua University

Yang Wenhua (Chinese: 楊文華, born 10 November 1951) is a retired Chinese politician and diplomat. He was the Premier of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2004, the first head of government after the Revolutions of 2000 led to the fall of communism in China. Before that he had also been the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China from 1990 to 1996 and the First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1996 to 1999. As a result he was among the closest advisors of General Secretary Song Kun, the penultimate head of the People's Republic.

Originally a pro-reform official of the CCP, he was given senior roles in the Central People's Government by General Secretary Song Kun in the mid-1990s and encouraged the Party's development in the pro-Western liberal orientation, first as Foreign Minister and then as First Secretary of the CCP Secretariat. He joined the administration of newly appointed Chinese President Ren Longyun upon the creation of the Republic of China and the dissolution of the PRC in January 2000 as the Premier. Yang's team oversaw the continuation the Chinese economic reform along the lines of "market socialism" and the country's entry into the World Trade Organization, greater openness to the West, and the restructuring of the Chinese state. Yang resigned in 2004 after disagreements with President Ren over his autocratic style of leadership, calling it a "personalized dictatorship," and the strengthening of the presidential system as opposed to other branches of government. Since 2004 he had become one of the leading opposition leaders to President Ren as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party. After the 2021 Chinese legislative election led to the opposition's victory and the creation of a coalition government involving the DPP, Yang has been a foreign policy advisor to the Democratic Progressive leadership in the Legislative Yuan.

Early life

Yang Wenhua was born in 1951 in Shanghai and began studying at Tsinghua University, regarded as the top university in China, in the Department of International Relations, in 1970 after receiving some of the highest national exam scores in his region. Later he did postgraduate work at the China Foreign Affairs University, and after completing it in 1976 was accepted into the Foreign Ministry. During his time in university he also studied Arabic.

Foreign service

Yang's first post in the diplomatic service was at the Chinese embassy in Damascus, Syria, where he remained from late 1976 until September 1979, working as an interpreter. He would later recall that during his time in Syria he came to the conclusion that a one-party state would lead to the stagnation and decline of a political system in the long term. From October 1979 to January 1983 he worked at the embassy in Abu Dhabi, Trucial States, as an assistant secretary, before becoming the political secretary. In March 1984 he became the deputy chief of mission in Baghdad, Iraq, before becoming Ambassador to Iraq from August 1985 to February 1988. During that time Yang tried to mediate between the Syrian and Iraqi governments as his term coincided with the War in the Levant, without success. Yang was later appointed as the first Ambassador of China to the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia when the country established relations with the People's Republic of China in 1988. Yang helped negotiate the signing of a strategic oil agreement with the kingdom, beginning China's cooperation with Hashemite Arabia. He held the position until July 1990, when he was appointed as Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China.

From 1990 to 1996 he would serve as Foreign Minister in the State Council during the leadership of the reformist General Secretary Song Kun, being considered an up and coming young diplomat as well as a member of the liberal pro-Western camp within the CCP. During that time Yang improved China's ties with Middle Eastern countries as the expansion of the Chinese economy also increased the country's energy needs. In July 1996, he was appointed as the First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Secretariat, making him in effect one of the closest advisors to the General Secretary and giving him a role in setting the Party's doctrine and overall direction of policy.

Personal life

Yang joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1972 and became an independent in 2000 after the fall of the People's Republic. In 2005 he became a member of the Democratic Progressive Party.

He speaks fluent Arabic and English in addition to his native Mandarin Chinese.