Huang Kuo-chang

Not to be confused with Huang Kuo-chung.

Huang Kuo-chang (Chinese: 黃國昌; pinyin: Huáng Guóchāng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: N̂g Kok-chhiong, born (1973-08-19)19 August 1973) is a Taiwanese politician, legal scholar,^[2] and activist. A member of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), he has led the TPP Legislative Yuan caucus since 2024, after being elected from its party list. He has served as the TPP’s chairman since 2025.

Huang Kuo-chang MLY
黃國昌
Official portrait, 2024
2nd Chairman of the Taiwan People's Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2025[a] Acting: 1 January 2025 – 19 February 2025
Preceded by	Ko Wen-je
Member of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2024
Constituency	Party-list (Taiwan People's Party)
In office 1 February 2016 – 31 January 2020
Preceded by	Lee Ching-hua
Succeeded by	Lai Pin-yu
Constituency	New Taipei XII
2nd Leader of the New Power Party
In office 2 July 2015 – January 2019[b]
Preceded by	Freddy Lim
Succeeded by	Chiu Hsien-chih
Other offices 3rd Leader of the Taiwan People's Party Caucus in Legislative Yuan Incumbent Assumed office 1 February 2024 Deputy Huang Shan-shan Wu Chun-cheng Chang Chi-kai Preceded by Andy Chiu 2nd Leader of the New Power Party Caucus in Legislative Yuan In office 10 September 2019 – 1 January 2020 Preceded by Hsu Yung-ming Succeeded by Chiu Hsien-chih
Personal details
Born	(1973-08-19) 19 August 1973 (age 51) Xizhi, Taipei County, Taiwan
Political party	Taiwan People's Party (after 2023) New Power Party (until 2023)
Education	National Taiwan University (LLB) Cornell University (LLM, JSD)
YouTube information
Channel	黃國昌
Years active	2017–present
Subscribers	535,000[1]
Views	99,356,365[1]
Last updated: 24 February 2025

Before entering politics, Huang graduated from National Taiwan University and earned his master's degree and doctorate in law from Cornell University in the United States. He was a leading figure in the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement before he became the leader of the New Power Party (NPP). He served as an NPP legislator representing New Taipei City’s 12th constituency from 2016 to 2020.

Early life and education

Huang Kuo-chang was born into a traditional farming family in Xizhi Township, Taipei County. He graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1995, and complete advanced studies in the United States at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) and a Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.)^[3] in 2002 from Cornell Law School.^[4] As of 2025, Huang is a member of Cornell's Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.^[5]

Huang was the Rudolf B. Schlesinger Fellow at Cornell Law School from 1999 to 2000, a legal researcher at the University of Tokyo from 2000 to 2001, and a visiting scholar at Cornell from 2001 to 2002.^[6] His 2003 doctoral dissertation was titled, "Introducing discovery into civil law",^[7] and was supervised by Kevin M. Clermont, Cornell's Robert D. Ziff Professor of Law, and law professors Theodore Eisenberg and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski.^[6] Huang joined the Academia Sinica as a researcher in the Institute of Jurisprudence in 2006 and left in 2015.

Legislative Yuan

9th Legislative Yuan

One of the leading figures of the Sunflower Student Movement, Huang joined the New Power Party (NPP) in May 2015.^[8] In July, he was named acting chairperson^[9][10] and subsequently served on a seven-member committee of party leaders, including Freddy Lim and Neil Peng.^[11] Huang ran as an NPP candidate in New Taipei City's 12th constituency in the 2016 legislative election.^[12] In support of Huang, the Democratic Progressive Party did not nominate any candidates for the race. Huang won the seat against incumbent Kuomintang legislator Lee Ching-hua and was assigned to the Finance Committee.^[13][14]

On 16 December 2017, a recall election was held against Huang [zh] over his support for same-sex marriage.^[15] Votes in favor of the recall outnumbered those against, but fell short of the required threshold of one-fourth of the district's total electorate.^[16] Huang stepped down as chairman of the New Power Party in January 2019.^[17][18] In June 2019, Huang stated that he would leave the New Power Party if it became a "sidekick" of the Democratic Progressive Party,^[19] but he denied that he was forming a new political party.^[20]

2020 campaign

Huang said in August 2019 that he would support the 2020 legislative campaign of Lai Chia-lun [zh], who sought to succeed Huang in New Taipei 12.^[21] Though the New Power Party (NPP) backed his return to the Legislative Yuan,^[22] it later explored drafting Huang to contest the 2020 Taiwan presidential election.^[23][24] Huang refused,^[25] and the NPP later announced that it would not nominate a presidential candidate.^[26] Huang was offered a position on the NPP party list,^[27] on which he was ranked fourth.^[28] The NPP won over seven percent of the party list vote, electing only three at-large legislative candidates.^[29]

In 2020, Huang cofounded the Taiwan Anti-corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association.^[30][31]

11th Legislative Yuan

On 16 November 2023, Huang announced that he had filed paperwork to join the Taiwan People's Party (TPP).^[32] Huang won election to the Legislative Yuan on the TPP's proportional representation party list in the 2024 legislative election.^[33] He was subsequently named the TPP caucus convener for the 11th Legislative Yuan.^[34] He sits on the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.^[35]

Taiwan People's Party chairmanship

Following the resignation of Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan People's Party chairmanship on 1 January 2025, the party's central committee elected Huang as acting chair.^[36][37] Shortly after the TPP scheduled a chairmanship by-election for 15 February, Huang declared his candidacy for the position.^[38][39] He won the position in a landslide with 8,903 votes to Tsai Pi-ru's 360 votes.^[40] He will serve as the TPP's chair until 31 December 2026, when Ko's term was originally scheduled to end.^[40]

Publications

• Journal Articles
  • Kuo-Chang Huang, Kong-Pin Chen, Chang-Ching Lin, 2015, "Party Capability versus Court Preference: Why do the "Haves" Come Out Ahead?－An Empirical Lesson from the Taiwan Supreme Court", Journal of Law Economics & Organization, 31(1), 93–126. (SSCI) (IF: 1.036; SSCI ranking: 37.7%,30.5%)
  • Kuo-Chang Huang, Chang-Ching Lin, & Kong-Pin Chen, 2014, "Do Rich and Poor Behave Similarly in Seeking Legal Advice? Lessons from Taiwan in Comparative Perspective", Law & Society Review, 48(1), 193–223. (SSCI) (IF: 1.31; SSCI ranking: 22.1%,21.2%)
  • Kuo-Chang Huang & Chang-Ching Lin, 2014, "Mock Jury Trials in Taiwan—Paving theGround for Introducing Lay Participation", Law and Human Behavior, 38(4), 367–377. (SSCI) (IF: 2.153; SSCI ranking: 7.6%,16.7%)
• Book Chapters
  • Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "The Effect of Stakes on Settlement—An Empirical Lesson from Taiwan", editor(s): Theodore Eisenberg, Giovanni Battista Ramello EDS, Research Handbooks in Comparative Law and Economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "Using Associations as a Vehicle for Class Action—The Case of Taiwan", editor(s): Deborah Hensler, Christ Hodge EDS, Class Action in Context, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Conference Papers
  • Kuo-Chang Huang, 2014, "The Impacts of Judicial Reform in Taiwan", paper presented at 4th Brazilian Jurimetrics Conference, Brazil: Brazilian Jurimetrics Association, 2014-05-12 ~ 2014-05-16.^[41]

Notes

1. As a co-convener of the Central Emergency Response Council from 29 August 2024 to 1 January 2025 during Ko's suspension as the party's chair; serving with Lin Fu-nan and Lee Wei-hua.
2. Titled as captain until 12 September 2016