Chao Shou-po (, born 1 March 1941) is a Taiwanese lawyer and politician who has served as Governor of Taiwan Province and Commissioner of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He is also a prominent leader in the World Scout Movement.
He has served as a Presidium Member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Kuomintang, and has taught law at several Taiwanese universities. Chao was the president of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Foundation Management Committee and the chairman of the Foundation of the Scouts of China (Taiwan). He has held many government posts including Labor Minister, Secretary-General of the Cabinet, Minister without Portfolio and Governor of the Province of Taiwan. Chao served the Ma Ying-jeou administration as senior adviser.See the List of National Policy Advisors and Senior Advisors of the Presidential Office of the Republic of China as published by the Presidential Office, 2015; see also http://www.president.gov.tw ; 總統核定資政及國策顧問名單, President Ma Decided the List of Senior Advisors and National Advisors, http://www.president.gov.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=34265&rmid=514
Early life and education Chao Shou-po was born in March 1941 to a rural farming family in what is now Lukang Township, Changhua County. He began his schooling in 1947 and graduated from the Tsaokang Elementary School of Lukang Township in 1953. In the same year, through a competitive entrance examination, he was admitted to and enrolled at the prestigious Taichung First High School in Taichung. In 1956 he finished his junior high school there and again through a 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, due to his high scores, was admitted to study zoology at National Taiwan University. At the same time, he also passed the entrance examination of the Central Police College (now Central Police University). But on August 7, 1959, a flood swept central Taiwan and Chao's family suffered heavy property and financial losses. In order to ease the financial burden of his parents, Chao chose to enroll 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 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree in 1963.Chao, Shou-po, The Critical Moments in My 70 Years of Life, A Memoir, (任憑風浪急), 4th print, 1st edition,(Cite Publishing Ltd., Taipei, 2011, pp. 33-40; Wang, Chien-hsiung, From A Farm Boy to A Cabinet Minister with a Doctoral Degree--The Life Story of Dr. Chao, Shou-po,(牧童．博士．火車頭), 2nd print, (Liou Chawan Culture Enterprise Co. Ltd., Taipei, 2011), pp. 1-47; 博客來－任憑風浪急：趙守博人生回顧暨論述、散文自選集, books.com.tw, Chao, Shou-po, Critical Moments in My 70 Years of Life--A Memoir, http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010502586 .
After serving as an inspector at the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration and completing a year of military service in the Republic of China Army, Chao won the KMT's Sun Yat-sen Scholarship in 1965 to pursue graduate studies in the United States. He enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1967, earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 1968 under Professor Wayne R. LaFave and a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) in 1972 under Professor Peter Hay, both from the University of Illinois College of Law.Supra note, Chao, pp. 41-48; supra note, Wang, pp. 12-14. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Comparative aspects of conflict of laws in domestic relations".
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.Past Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients-Alumni-College of Law-Illinois; https://www.law.illinois.edu/alumni/past-award-recipients ; List of Distinguished Alumni of Taichung First High School, 歷屆台中一中傑出校友名單, .
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.Academia Historica, Republic of China, Chiang Ching-kuo and Taiwan: The Reminiscences of Relevant People Vol. 1,(Taipei, 2010), (蔣經國與台灣－相關人物訪談錄,第一輯,國史館, Taipei, 2010), pp. 254-262; supra note 2, Chao, pp. 48-53.
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.Supra note, Academia Historica, pp. 251-254; Regarding the Taiwan Relations Act, see 臺灣關係法. 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.Chao, Shou-po, Social Problems and Social Welfare, (China Daily News, Tainan, 1990), (社會問題與社會福利, 1990年台南中華日報出版).
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.Supra note 2, Chao, pp. 63-71; supra note 2, Wang, pp. 127-247.; supra note 5, Academia Historica, pp. 262-270.
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.Supra note 2, Wang, pp. 54-78; supra note 2, Chao, pp. 71-94. 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.Turn-mu Wei-ping, Governor Chao---A Different Kind of Governor, 2nd edition, (Morning Star Press, Taichung, 2000),(端木惟平, 另類省主席趙守博); supra note 2, Chao, 96-112; supra note 2, Wang, pp. 251-326. 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.Supra note 2, Chao, pp.112-124; supra note 5, Academia Historica, pp. 254-262; supra note 2, Wang, pp. 331-361.
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.人物專訪:毅力‧苦幹 從政到公益—趙守博, Interview with Special Personality: Perseverance, Hard Work, From Governmental Career to Charity---Chao, Shou-po; supra note 2, Chao, pp. 124-128. http://www.weide.org.tw/magtxt3/52-mag-007/267-2010-12-06-07-57-19.html .
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.The Official Site of CPBL(Chinese Professional Baseball League), http://www.cpbl.com.tw/eng/history/1/; supra note 2, Chao, pp. 133-142.