Lee Ching-hua

Lee Ching-hua (Chinese: 李慶華; pinyin: Lǐ Qìnghuá; born 3 December 1948) is a Taiwanese historian, lawyer, and politician.

Lee Ching-hua
李慶華
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office 1 February 2008 – 31 January 2016
Succeeded by	Huang Kuo-chang
Constituency	New Taipei 12
In office 1 February 1999 – 31 January 2008
Succeeded by	Yu Tian
Constituency	Taipei County 3
In office 1 February 1993 – 31 January 1999
Constituency	Taipei 2
Convenor of the New Party National Committee
In office January 1999 – March 2000
Preceded by	Chen Kuei-miao Feng Ting-kuo (acting)
Succeeded by	Hau Lung-pin
Personal details
Born	(1948-12-03) 3 December 1948 (age 76) Hangzhou, Republic of China
Political party	Kuomintang (until 1993; since 2005) New Party (1993–2000) People First Party (2000–2005)
Relations	Diane Lee (sister)
Parent	Lee Huan (father)
Education	National Chengchi University (LLB) New York University (PhD)

Early life and education

Lee Ching-hua was born on 3 December 1948, the second child to Lee Huan and Pan Hsiang-ning.^[1] He had one older brother, Lee Ching-chung, and two younger sisters, Lee Ching-chu and Diane Lee.

Lee graduated from National Chengchi University (NCCU) with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) then completed graduate studies in the United States, where he earned his Ph.D. in history from New York University in 1984. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Teng Hsiao-p'ing's political biography".^[2] After receiving his doctorate, Lee returned to Taiwan and became an associate professor at NCCU.^[3][4]

Political career

Lee was elected to the Legislative Yuan for the first time in 1992. He, Chen Kuei-miao, and others broke away from the Kuomintang to found the New Party the next year.^[4][5] He joined James Soong's People First Party in 2000 to support Soong's first presidential bid,^[4] but continued serving as the leader of the New Party's national election and development committee during the 2000 election.^[6] Lee left the PFP in May 2005 and rejoined the Kuomintang.^[7][8] Lee lost his legislative seat to Huang Kuo-chang of the New Power Party in 2016.^[9] The next year, Wu Den-yih named Lee a spokesman for Wu's KMT chairmanship bid.^[10]

Controversy

In September 2018, Lee was indicted on charges of corruption by the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office, and accused of embezzling NT$5.23 million, an amount meant to pay for his legislative assistants' salaries.^[11]