Vincent Siew

In November 1991, Siew represented ROC, under the name Chinese Taipei, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in Seoul, South Korea. In November 1992, he again represented Chinese Taipei for APEC in Bangkok, Thailand. After a series of negotiations, he managed to secure ROC, under the name Chinese Taipei, as an observer member.

In 1988-1989, he was appointed as the Vice Chairman of Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) in which during his office term, he promoted major infrastructure projects, such as the straightening of Keelung River, the placement of Taipei City rail lines underground, the construction of the East-West Highway, the diversion of Chichi River and the expansion of Kaohsiung International Airport.

In February 1993, Siew was appointed as the Chairman of CEPD. In June 1993, he announced his economic stimulus package aiming at promoting steady economic growth, as Taiwan's economy was at that time experiencing stagnant export growth and production levels. In August 1993, he completed a review of the Six-Year National Development Plan of the ROC and assigned priorities to projects on the basis of availability of resources and the maintenance of financial stability. In July 1994, he undertook major administrative reform with the introduction of a program to streamline bidding procedures for public construction projects and government procurement. He also initiated a program to develop Taiwan into an operation center for the Asia-Pacific region.

As the chairman, he represented President Lee Teng-hui, who was forbidden to attend personally, at the 1993 and 1994 annual APEC leaders' summits held in November 1993 and November 1994 at Seattle, United States and Bogor, Indonesia respectively. At both meetings, he presented papers on Taiwan's successful experience in the development of agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises. The action plans proposed in the papers won the approval of APEC support and helped promote Taiwan in the international trade and investment arenas.[5]

Siew was appointed as the Premier by President Lee Teng-hui after the 15th National Congress of Kuomintang held in August 1997 in Taipei. Siew took office on 1 September 1997.[6]

Premier Siew instructed Taiwan Power Company to sign the unpublished agreement with Mainland China regarding Taiwan's nuclear waste storage in Gansu province. A memorandum of it was signed during his term as Premier, although it was later suspended after the transfer of power in 2000 to Premier Tang Fei.[7]

On 18 March 2000, Siew joined the 2000 presidential election as a candidate for vice president with his running mate Lien Chan. However, Siew and Lien lost the election to Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu of the Democratic Progressive Party.

In May 2007, Siew was mentioned as a possible running mate for KMT presidential nominee Ma Ying-Jeou.[8] This speculation came to fruition after Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng declined Ma's offer to be his running mate. On 23 June 2007, ending weeks of speculation, Ma formally introduced Siew to be his vice-presidential running mate.[9] The 2008 run is Siew's second ticket, having been selected also as the vice-presidential candidate of Lien Chan's KMT ticket in 2000.

On March 22, Ma and Siew won the 2008 presidential elections. He and Ma won with 7,659,014 (58.45%) votes against Hsieh and Su's 5,444,949 (41.55%) votes.

On 11 April 2008, Vincent Siew departed Taiwan to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, held in Boao, Hainan, which is administered by mainland China. Siew is a founding delegate of the forum from 2001, and he attended once again in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation. Siew had met with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Hu Jintao in Bo'ao in 2001. However, his special status as the vice president-elect in 2008 made his attendance more significant, but also more controversial in Taiwan. His meeting with Hu Jintao was the highest level exchange between Taiwan and mainland China since the 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China. The level of reception for Siew in Hainan was scaled accordingly and was equivalent to that reserved for Lien Chan in 2005.[10]

On 12 April 2008, Vincent Siew met with Hu Jintao at the Boao Asia Forum as part of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation delegation, which also included other former and future government officials and business leaders from Taiwan. At the meeting, Siew and Hu exchanged their optimism for cross-strait relations under the new Taiwanese leadership of Ma Ying-jeou and Vincent Siew.[11] Hu asked Siew to convey his greetings to Ma Ying-jeou, Kuomintang chairman Wu Po-hsiung and chairman emeritus Lien Chan. Siew raised the issue of regular cross-strait flights and the resumption of regular talks between the two governments, propositions to which Hu expressed agreement.

Siew, along with Ma, was sworn in on 20 May 2008 in Taipei to be Vice President and President of the Republic of China respectively.[12]

On 4 September 2008, Siew embarked on his first overseas trip as vice president, visiting Swaziland for four days. Siew's trip aimed to cement further the diplomatic ties between the two countries, and to celebrate King Mswati III's fortieth birthday. Foreign Minister Francisco Ou accompanied Siew on the trip.[13]

Siew declined to run for a second term in Ma's 2012 re-election bid. Ma, instead, nominated Premier Wu Den-yih for the vice presidential slot on the ticket.

Siew, in his capacity as the honorary chairman of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation, attended the Boao Forum for Asia held in April 2014 in Hainan where he met with Premier Li Keqiang. He reiterated the intention of Taiwan to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. He also told Li that Taiwan and Mainland China should push for greater bilateral trade liberalization to build a comprehensive economic relationship and express Taiwan's wish to join the regional economy.[14]

In November 2014 in his capacity of the Economic Leader of Chinese Taipei, Siew flew to Beijing to attend the APEC China 2014 where he met with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People. Both leaders agreed that there should be no changes in the 1992 Consensus and two other principles in pushing forward with the development of cross-Strait relations. Xi said that although relations of both sides have seen some progress over the past few years, there had been also some new problems. He added that the two sides should try to maintain the long-term and healthy development of relation by improving the confidence, mutual trust, respect and interaction. Part of Siew delegation included Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi and several Taiwanese business people.[15]