Gao Weihan

    

His Excellency Gao Weihan
President of the Legislative Yuan
In office 24 December 2001 – 3 February 2021
President	Ren Longyun (2001–2020) Zhao Meijin (2020–2021)
Preceded by	Himself as Chairman of the National People's Congress
Succeeded by	Tang Zhonglin
Member of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2000 Acting: 1 January 2000 – 24 December 2001
Constituency	Party list
Chairman of the National People's Congress
In office 20 September 1997 – 24 December 2001 Acting: 1 January 2000 – 24 December 2001
President	Song Kun (1997–1999) Ren Longyun (1999–2001)
Preceded by	Liu Qi
Succeeded by	Himself as President of the Legislative Yuan
Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress
In office 2 February 1986 – 8 February 1996
Personal details
Born	(1942-03-01) March 1, 1942 Tongshan, Hubei, Republic of China
Political party	Kuomintang
Education	Wuhan University School of Law
Profession	Lawyer

Gao Weihan (born 1 March 1942) is a Chinese politician and jurist. He was the President of the Legislative Yuan from December 2001 to February 2021. Having a long career in politics, he was a member of the National People's Congress in the People's Republic of China as a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK). Known for being soft-spoken and conciliatory, he has been an ally of former Chinese President Ren Longyun since the late 1990s, and during his tenure the Legislative Yuan has been accused of being a rubber stamp organization for the president.

Born in Hubei province, he became a jurist be training after graduating from the Wuhan University School of Law in 1963 with an LL.M. degree. Gao initially worked in different positions for the Wuhan District Court. He joined the Revolutionary Committee of the KMT in 1964 and was elected to people's assemblies on the local and provincial levels, until he eventually won a seat in the National People's Congress in 1971. Gao became one of the Vice Chairmen of the Congress in 1986, holding that post until the end of his last term in 1996. During the 1990s he became known for supporting the pro-democratic reform factions in Chinese politics, being acquainted with future President Ren Longyun, who was at the time the director of the Discipline Inspection Commission. In September 1997, he became elected as the first non-Communist Chairman of the National People's Congress, and after the Beijing Spring in late 1999 led to the fall of communism he continued in that role as Acting Chairman after the creation of the Republic of China in January 2000.

He was a senior member of the Central Election Commission that organized the country's first post-Communist legislative election in December 2001, and played a significant role in creating the new Chinese Nationalist Party on the basis of its former Revolutionary Committee. The party won the election with a majority of 52%, leading to his reelection as President of the Legislative Yuan, essentially continuing in his former post. Gao would be elected to the Legislative Yuan on the Kuomintang federal party list. After the resignation of Premier Lin Renjian in October 2021 leading to the announcement of an early election in January 2022, Gao announced he would retire from politics and would not remain in the Legislative Yuan.

Personal life

He has been a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang since 1964, which in 2000 was reorganized as the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party).