Yao, a former journalist, was named the minister of the Government Information Office in March 2005.

[6] Yao ran for the mayoralty of Taipei City in the 2014 local elections.

[8] The Democratic Progressive Party chose to back Ko's independent bid for the office,[9] and he defeated Kuomintang candidate Sean Lien.

[11] Yao announced that he would contest the Taipei mayoralty for the second time in July 2017.

[13] Yao retired from politics after finishing third behind Ko Wen-je and Ting Shou-chung, stating that he would begin working on documentaries about activists Peng Ming-min and Cheng Nan-jung.