Lee Hong-yuan

Lee Hong-yuan (Chinese: 李鴻源; pinyin: Lǐ Hóngyuán) is a politician in the Republic of China. He was the Minister of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) of the Executive Yuan from 2012 to 2014.

Lee was born in Taishan, Taipei County to a farmer family. He obtained his bachelor's degree in hydraulic engineering from National Cheng Kung University. He then earned an M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1984) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa, where was inducted as a member of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy in 2008.

Upon graduation, Lee worked in the United States for two years before returning to Taiwan in 1986 to teach at National Taiwan University. Lee has also been a visiting professor at five universities in Mainland China and in the Netherlands.

2012 Nantou Magistrate corruption charges

In early April 2013, Commenting on the refusal for Lee Chao-ching to be reinstate back as the Magistrate of Nantou County after being detained in November 2012 due to corruption charges, Minister Lee said that the decision to deny him for the Magistrate position back is not solely the decision by the MOI or by himself, but by a set of committee which has thoroughly look into the case, and now the case has been handed over to the Control Yuan.

Taiwan water shortage

In early April 2013, Lee admitted that the Taiwan is currently facing serious water shortage problem. He confessed that neither the ROC central governments or local governments pay enough attention to this matter, instead he added that the governments only care about election.

Taiwan HSR explosive device discovery incident

Commenting on the discovery of explosive device inside Taiwan High Speed Rail on 12 April 2013, speaking at Legislative Yuan a week after, Lee said that Taiwan needs to strengthen its anti-terrorism and awareness and training despite terrorism has been relatively rare, because in the past Taiwan mainly focus on preventing natural disasters.

Kenting swimming race incident

Commenting on the disaster that strike swimmers during the ocean swimming race along the coast of Kenting at Hengchun Township on 21 April 2013 due to heavy ocean current, Lee said that there were flaws in the preparation of the sport event and promised to launch an investigation to this incident.

Lee is married and has four children. His eldest daughter is a professor in architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing.