Yang Wenhua's Cabinet
| Cabinet of Yang Wenhua | |
|---|---|
 19th Cabinet of China | |
| Date formed | January 1, 2000 |
| Date dissolved | May 20, 2004 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | President Ren Longyun |
| Head of government | Yang Wenhua |
| Deputy head of government |
Qin Junyi (to 2003) Duan Zhimin |
| No. of ministers | 19 |
| Member party |
Kuomintang (KMT) Independent |
| Status in legislature | Majority party |
| Opposition party |
Social Democratic Chinese Communist Democratic Progressive |
| History | |
| Election(s) | Appointed by the President of the Republic of China |
| Predecessor | Qi Ronghua Government |
| Successor | Han Zhanshu's Cabinet |
The Cabinet of Yang Wenhua was the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China from January 2000 until May 2004, the country's first government after the collapse and dissolution of the People's Republic of China. It was appointed by President Ren Longyun, who was the acting president from January until his election in April 2000.
The main goals of the Yang Wenhua government were reforming the economy along the lines of market socialism while preventing any shocks to the economy, and reforming the constitutional structure of the state to sweep away the foundations of the Communist government. For the first goal, he was mostly successful while facing more difficulty on the second one. Increasingly, by 2003 the Premier was often at odds with President Ren over what he saw as his authoritarian tendencies, such as taking control of media outlets and expanding the powers of the National Security Bureau. He also opposed allowing large numbers of former CCP officials to join the government administration. Yang Wenhua resigned as Premier for those reasons after the May 2004 election, which saw Ren Longyun reelected for another term.
Cabinet formation
Yang Wenhua was appointed as Premier by the first President, Ren Longyun, on January 1, 2000, the same day that the People's Republic of China was dissolved during the Beijing Spring in late 1999. Qi Ronghua, the last acting Premier of the State Council of the PRC, resigned at the request of President Ren as he wanted to appoint someone who had a reputation for being an outsider from the CCP. Yang had worked in the CCP but left the party in the late 1990s and had been a member of the Chinese democracy movement in the lead up to the Beijing Spring. He also had many years of experience in working at the highest levels of government, having previously been the Foreign Minister.
As Ren had joined one of the two leading political parties that emerged during the protest movement, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), he chose as the head of government someone who represented the other major party. Yang was more aligned with the Democratic Progressive Party although he was not a member at that time. Yang and Ren decided on the composition of the new cabinet on January 1, filling it with KMT and independent officials.
The first task of the new government was liberalizing the economy to some degree, continuing the policies of "market socialism" to prevent any shocks to the economy while at the same time ending some Communist era controls. By and large the state oversight of the economy was left in place, but with less regulation and increased support to small businesses and foreign investors. The National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planning agency of the People's Republic, was slightly reformed but mostly left in its place. The other major policy pursued by Premier Yang Wenhua was implementing a new Constitution of the Republic of China, based largely on Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People – nationalism, democracy, and social welfare. The structure of the government during the first Chinese Republic in the 20th century, particularly during the time of Chiang Kai-shek, was used as an inspiration.
The cabinet continued after the April 2000 presidential election, which saw Ren Longyun elected to his first term, and the December 2001 parliamentary election, where the Kuomintang won a majority of the seats in a landslide.
Composition
| Portfolio | Incumbent | Appointment |
|---|---|---|
| Premier | Yang Wenhua | 2000 |
| Vice Premier | Qin Junyi | 2000 |
| Duan Zhimin | 2003 | |
| Ministry of the Interior | Wu Zhongxun | 2000 |
| Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Li Zhicheng | 1996 |
| Jiang Zuobin | 2001 | |
| Ministry of National Defense | Zeng Yilin | 2000 |
| Ministry of Finance | Xiao Yijun | 2000 |
| Wei Fusen | 2001 | |
| National Development and Reform Commission | Zou Jianxin | 2000 |
| Ministry of Justice | Wang Qingli | 2000 |
| Ministry of Education | Liu Jingping | 2000 |
| Ministry of Transportation and Communications | Zhong Bin | 2000 |
| Ministry of Public Health | Li Xinpeng | 2000 |
| Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare | Han Xiubin | 1999 |
| Sun Zhigang | 2002 | |
| Ministry of Culture | Kong Yalin | 2000 |
| Ministry of Science and Technology | Wang Wei | 2000 |
| Ministry of Natural Resources | Zhan Lihui | 1998 |
| Tian Junfeng | 2002 | |
| Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs | Wu Jia | 2000 |
| Sun Zhaozhi | 2003 | |
| Ministry of Emergency Management | Zhou Xiaoming | 2000 |
| Central Bank of the Republic of China | Wu Kaiping | 1999 |
| State Ethnic Affairs Commission | Uliji | 2000 |