Hung Hsiu-chu

Hung entered her first Legislative Election campaign in 1989. Her KMT branch director objected to her request, and therefore did not give her time off during the campaign. Hung insisted on entering the primary and was only able to participate in the events on weekends as a candidate. She had her cousin go to the events on weekdays and hold up her poster whenever her name was called as a silent protest of her helpless absence. This was widely reported by the media and Hung won the primary by marginal votes, and thus was nominated by the party. Hung said, "My father passed away the moment when I won the primary. It seemed that he was waiting for the final confirmation. I was whispering in his ear, 'Bless me with the nomination if you want me to embark on my career in this path of politics.'" Hung subsequently won the seat in the legislative election and began her career in the Legislative Yuan for eight consecutive terms.

Hung almost lost her second election term of Legislative Yuan on 19 December 1992 to Zhao Shao-Kang in the same constituency. Hung had joined in 1989 new secondary political coalition within the KMT, but the coalition parted from KMT to form the New Party in 1993 and Hung decided to stay with the original KMT.

Hung was elected again in the third election term on 2 December 1995 of the legislative campaign. Taipei County was divided into three constituencies during the fourth election term on 5 December 1998 with too many candidates, therefore Hung transferred to the non-partisan division and was elected again. She again beat the People First Party in the fifth election term on 1 December 2001 and won by marginal votes. Hung ranked first in polls in the sixth election term on 11 December 2004 and won with the second highest number of votes.

She was again elected as the non-partisan legislature in the seventh election term on 12 January 2008. In August 2008, she revealed secret accounts held abroad by former President Chen Shui-bian to the public which infuriated Chen's supporters.[10] Hung won the election again in the eighth election term on 14 January 2012.

Hung has been on the Education and Culture Committee in the Legislative Yuan for many years. She worked tirelessly to promote legislation for educational reform, dropout students, teachers benefits, medical and pharmaceutical regulations and universal healthcare system. The number of female legislators were still scarce in 1992 and Hung was named several times in different organizations as top legislator for her overall excellent professional performance.

On 27 April 2007, Hung joined the KMT chairmanship election, going against former acting KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung. She eventually lost to Wu with 13.0% of the votes to Wu's 87.0%.

Hung was appointed Vice Chairperson of KMT by the KMT Central Standing Committee on 15 February 2012 when the former Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan resigned.

KMT lost majority of the seats in the local elections on 29 November 2014, resulting in the resignation of Party Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, with both first and second Vice Chairmen declined the acting position. Wu Den-yih was nominated to be the acting Chairman and Hung became the acting Secretary-General by the Central Committee on 3 December 2014. Eric Chu became the new Party Chairman after winning the party chairmanship election on 17 January 2015 unopposed. Hung was released from the position thereafter on 18 January 2015.

After her election for vice presidency of Legislative Yuan in 2012 by an overwhelming 69 votes, Hung said that she was familiar with the situation at the Legislative Yuan, and that respecting and abiding by the regulations within Legislative Yuan was really important. She made ROC history being the first woman elected to the post and took office on 1 February 2012.[15][16]

During the opening remark of the 4th Straits Forum held in Xiamen, Fujian, in June 2012, Hung, in her capacity as Vice Chairperson of KMT, said that although mainland China was bigger and stronger, the greatest appeal that mainland China has for Taiwan is not only growing competitiveness, but also respect and goodwill given to the people of Taiwan.[17]

During the opening remarks of the 6th Straits Forum held in Xiamen, Fujian in June 2014, Hung said that she hoped that both sides will cherish their increasingly close links and continue mutual dialogue and exchanges, because by doing so it will be possible to inject a new energy into cross-strait relations. She added that the forum remains full of enthusiasm and vitality despite the recent setback on the signing of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement from the Sunflower Student Movement.[18] She did acknowledge the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Taiwan as well as the younger generations dissatisfaction towards the government that also exist in many other countries due to the global trend of moving towards free trade. She said that the government would be more open and tolerant to negotiate with the public and take challenges.[19]

On 20 April 2015, Hung registered for the KMT presidential primary held prior to the 2016 elections. She pledged for fair and open election process under a democratic mechanism.[20] Hung passed the 30% approval rating threshold in three KMT presidential primary polls on 14 June 2015, with an average approval rating of 46.20%.[21] She was officially nominated as the KMT presidential candidate during the National Party Congress on 19 July 2015 at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.[22] During her speech, she promised peace, openness, equal distribution of wealth and morality to the people of Taiwan if she were elected. She would also push for a peaceful cross-strait relations based on the 1992 Consensus.[23][24]

Hung started her campaign in Taichung on 23 July 2015. During an interview with a local radio station, Hung stated she would take the interests of the people into account, as well as the ROC constitution, when making decisions. She promised to sign a peace agreement that would improve military trust between Taiwan and China. She hoped that the mainland will allow Taiwan more opportunities to join international organizations and thereby boost its regional economic strength. She also pledged to improve the economy through job creation and build a just and equal society.[25] Hung's campaign has been compared to the New Party's pro-Chinese unification stance.[26] Her China policy, known as "one China, same interpretation," aims to have the People's Republic of China recognize the government of the Republic of China without recognizing the ROC as a state.[27][28] President Ma Ying-jeou has supported this view, calling it no different from his own "one China, different interpretation" based on the 1992 consensus,[29] though Kuomintang chairman Eric Chu has opposed it.[30] Hung's run for president had been continually beset by rumors that she would withdraw from the race prior to the elections,[31] an action Hung denied considering.[32] On 26 July 2015, the spokesperson of Hung's campaign team Jack Yu (游梓翔) said that he would tender his resignation on 1 August 2015 to return to his teaching position at Shih Hsin University. However, he stayed on as adviser to Hung's public and media relations team.[33] With a KMT-sanctioned poll revealing that Hung's support was at 13% in early October 2015, Central Standing Committee member Chiang Shuo-ping proposed a party congress be called to review Hung's candidacy.[34] Due to her poor performance in polls,[35] 91% of delegates at the congress, held on 17 October, chose to replace Hung as KMT presidential candidate.[36] KMT chairman Eric Chu was selected as the replacement candidate.[37] Hundreds of Hung's supporters gathered outside Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to protest the party congress being held inside the building.[38] On 22 October, Hung announced that she would return all campaign contributions made since 23 September, a total of NT$11.83 million, to 2,633 donors.[39]

After her presidential campaign came to a close, New Party chairman Yok Mu-ming attempted to convince Hung to switch parties and run for the legislature as a New Party candidate. Hung rejected this offer in November 2015, announcing her intention to stay with the KMT, but not to run a legislative reelection campaign in 2016.[40] Hung later wrote a book about her presidential campaign, titled Unfinished Presidential Road.[41] In December, Chu invited Hung to lead the group of advisers he had assembled for his campaign.[42]

Chu lost the presidential election, and subsequently resigned his post as KMT chair. On 19 January 2016, Hung announced that she would run for the position.[43] On 22 February, Hung submitted the signatures of 84,822 party members in support of her candidacy.[44] She was confirmed as a candidate four days later, having collected 38,407 valid signatures.[45] Hung won 78,829 votes in the leadership election, and became the first elected chairwoman of the party.[46]

On 30 October 2016, Hung led a delegation to attend the 11th Cross-strait Peace Development Forum which was held on 2–3 November in Beijing. The delegation included Jason Hu, Steve Chan, Huang Ching-hsien (黃清賢), Alex Tsai, Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) and Wu Bi-chu (吳碧珠). She met with General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping in her capacity as the Kuomintang chairperson.[47][48]

Hung was the first to declare her candidacy for the 2017 KMT chair election. She finished second to Wu Den-yih.

2017 Kuomintang chairmanship election
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Wu Den-yih	Kuomintang	144,408	52.24%
2	Hung Hsiu-chu	Kuomintang	53,063	19.20%
3	Hau Lung-pin	Kuomintang	44,301	16.03%
4	Han Kuo-yu	Kuomintang	16,141	5.84%
5	Steve Chan	Kuomintang	12,332	4.46%
6	Tina Pan	Kuomintang	2,437	0.88%
Eligible voters			476,147
Total votes			276,423
Valid votes			272,682
Invalid votes			3,741
Turnout			58.05%