Wan Kaige

   

Wan Kaige
萬凯歌
Premier of the Republic of China
Incumbent
Assumed office January 22, 2022
President	Zhao Meijin
Deputy	Jiang Sen
Preceded by	Yan Xiuren (acting)
Secretary-General of the Kuomintang
In office July 18, 2020 – April 19, 2021
Preceded by	Han Zhanshu
Succeeded by	Lin Yi
Vice Premier of the Republic of China
In office May 20, 2012 – May 26, 2016
President	Ren Longyun
Premier	Wu Kaiping
Preceded by	Liu Zhengyong
Succeeded by	Qian Yuhai
President of the Control Yuan
In office October 14, 2006 – March 20, 2012
Preceded by	Zhang Jun
Succeeded by	Chen Rongxiang
Personal details
Born	(1960-04-01) April 1, 1960 Cangzhou, Zhili, People's Republic of China
Political party	Kuomintang (1997–present)
Other political affiliations	Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang (until 1997)
Education	Peking University (LL.B.) Mulholland University (LL.M.)
Profession	Lawyer, politician

Wan Kaige (Chinese: 萬凯歌, born April 1, 1960) is a Chinese politician and lawyer who has been the Premier of the Republic of China since January 2022. Before that he had also notably served as the Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 2012 to 2016 and President of the Control Yuan from 2006 to 2012.

A lawyer by profession, he worked for the Supreme Prosecutor's Office and rose to prominence in the 1990s for investigating several high profile corruption cases involving Chinese Communist Party officials. After the Revolutions of 2000 and the fall of communism he served as an auditor and investigator in the Chinese national government. Wan became the chair of the Committee on Anti-Corruption, and then from 2006 to 2012 he was the President of the Control Yuan, the branch of government responsible for investigating and auditing civil servants. In that role Wan Kaige organized the largest anti-corruption campaign in China's history, that led to several high profile arrests. For a time he had tense relations with President Ren Longyun over investigations into several of the president's former allies. Still, despite disagreements with the president, he was appointed as the Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 2012 to 2016 in the government of Premier Wu Kaiping, and later served as the Secretary-General of the Kuomintang from 2020 to 2021.

After the 2022 Chinese legislative election, the Kuomintang, the Democratic Party of Socialists, and the New Party formed what became known as the "Pan-Blue Coalition" to have a conservative coalition in the Legislative Yuan. Wan Kaige was chosen to become the Premier and form a new government, consisting of Kuomintang and DPS cabinet ministers. He was inaugurated on January 22, 2022.

Early life

Wan Kaige was born in 1960 in Cangzhou, a city in Zhili just south of Tianjin and Beijing. He passed the exams to enter the prestigious Peking University Law School in 1978, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree. He later spent a year doing postgraduate studies for a Master of Laws degree at Mulholland University in Sierra, from 1982 to 1983. Besides his native Mandarin Chinese, Wan also learned to speak fluent English and Japanese.

Upon returning to China, from 1983 to 1988 he was a clerk for several government organizations, including the Laws and Regulations Committee at the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, and the Department of Legal Affairs of the Financial Supervisory Commission. In September 1988 Wan Kaige started working for the Zhili provincial prosecutor's office. He quickly gained a reputation for being extremely competent and highly valuing the rule of law, and was able to continue to rise despite not being a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Wan gained national prominence for his role in the prosecution of the former Zhili Provincial People's Congress chairman Cai Jining for accepting large bribes in early 1995, at the time one of the most high-profile corruption prosecutions. As a result of that case Wan joined the Special Investigation Division at the People's Supreme Prosecutor's Office.

In 1997 and 1998 he had one of the leading roles in the anti-corruption purge launched by General Secretary Song Kun, which resulted in over 7,000 arrests of middle and high ranking officials through the country. Wan was aligned with the pro-reform camp in the Communist Party and the "Eight Elders," prominent communist officials who had risen to wealth and power after the start of China's "opening and reform" policies in 1965 with Zhou Zhiyong. Wan also became a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, one of the leading opposition parties in China to the Communists, which was working more actively since the reforms of the mid-1990s that granted political freedoms. During the Beijing Spring protests in late 1999 he supported the protestors, and after the collapse of communism and the restoration of the republic, Wan was appointed to the newly established Control Yuan.

Control Yuan

In the spring of 2000 he was one of the prosecutors in the case of the former Minister of State Security Wen Lan, the leader and organizer of the 1999 Chinese coup d'état attempt against former General Secretary Song Kun. In June 2000 Wan became the chair of the Committee on Anti-Corruption within the Control Yuan, the Republic of China's anti-corruption and audit branch of government.

In 2010 and 2011 he led the investigation into Chinese billionaire and former head of the state-owned China Petrochemical Corporation Li Zhen.

Premiership

Main article: Wan Kaige's Cabinet