Chao Shou-po

Chao Shou-po (Chinese: 趙守博; pinyin: Zhào Shǒubó, born 1 March 1941) is a Taiwanese politician, educator, civic activist and lawyer who has served as Governor of Taiwan Province and Commissioner of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

He has served as a Presidium Member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Kuomintang, and has taught law at several Taiwanese universities.

[1] Chao Shou-po was born in March 1941 to a farming family in the countryside in what is now Lukang Township, Changhua County, Taiwan.

In 1945, Taiwan was transferred from Japanese rule to the Nationalist Government of China and in 1947 Chao started his education.

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 was granted admission to the Zoology Department of the highly prestigious National Taiwan University.

On August 7, 1959, a big flood swept central part of Taiwan and Chao's family suffered a very heavy property and financial loss.

In order to ease the financial burden of his parents, Chao chose to enroll and study at the Central Police College which provided free tuition, books, board and lodging and a monthly allowance for students.

[2] After serving as an inspector at the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration and completing one-year ROTC military service in the army, Chao passed the highly competitive examination for the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Scholarship for Studying Abroad in 1965.

Immediately after his completion of the master's degree, Chao was admitted to the doctoral program in the University of Illinois College of Law.

[5] 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.

[6] 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.

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 was the chairman and the Chief Commissioner of the General Association of Scouts of China (Taiwan) from 2007 to 2013.

Since 2002, Chao has taught at the Graduate School of Management of I-Shou University in Kaohsiung as a chair professor.

He has also taught international criminal law at the Institute of the Law of Sea of the National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung and the Doctorate Program of the Department of Industrial Education of the National Changhua University of Education in Changhua in central Taiwan.