Joseph Wu

Joseph Wu or Wu Chao-hsieh (Chinese: 吳釗燮; pinyin: Wú Zhāoxiè; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ngô͘ Chiau-siat; born 31 October 1954) is the current Secretary-General of the National Security Council of the Republic of China and was formerly the chief representative of Taiwan to the United States as the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.. He was appointed to that position in mid-April 2007 by President Chen Shui-bian to succeed his predecessor, David Lee.

Educational background

Prior to entering politics, he was an academic political scientist, finishing his PhD in political science in 1989 at Ohio State University. He wrote papers critical of the PRC while in the United States. He served as a teacher and research assistant in the political science department of Ohio State University in the United States, and as deputy director of the Institute of International Relations of National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Rise in politics

Formerly the Deputy Secretary General of the Presidential Office for President Chen Shui-bian, Wu was appointed the chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, the body charged with coordinating relations with Mainland China (the People's Republic of China), by Chen in May 2004.

His appointment as Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council proved somewhat controversial due to his reputation as a supporter of Taiwan independence, especially in light of the simultaneous appointment as foreign minister of former independence activist Mark Chen. Wu was the only non-Kuomintang representative of the ROC to the United States.

His tenure as head of TECRO lasted one year and three months.

Cross-strait relations

With the approved bill by the ROC Cabinet on 11 April 2013 to established Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) branch office in Mainland China and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) office in Taiwan, Wu, who were once the ROC Minister of Mainland Affairs Council said that for ARATS office to be established in Taiwan, it needs to have three prerequisite, which are that office should never evolved to become the one like PRC Liaison Office in Hong Kong, office's mandate must be clearly defined and the officers must adhere to the international diplomatic regulations.