Chin-tien Yang (Timothy)

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Date of Birth: 01/07/1942
Place of Birth: Changhua

One of the Taiwan's most experienced Africanist diplomats now appointed as Foreign Minister, Chin-tien (Timothy) Yang keeps carefully to the new script which paradoxically downplays the importance of Taipei's African allies. In his first weeks as Foreign Minister, Yang studiously supported President Ma Ying-jeou's 'modus vivendi' diplomacy, whose main tenet is that Taiwan should avoid disrupting the efforts of Ma's government to cultivate new economic and political ties with the Middle Kingdom. Accordingly, Taiwan has abandoned its annual bid for UN recognition. Taiwan pressed instead for 'meaningful participation' in two UN agencies and the advocacy of Taiwan's 23 allies was not requested. Yang used the words 'pragmatic' and 'practical' to describe his viewpoint, promising to avoid shake-ups in diplomatic relations.

Born in 1942, Yang studied international relations at National Chengchi University in Taipei, taking a master's degree there. He took further courses in international affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Department of African Affairs in 1972, then spent nearly a decade at Taiwan's embassy in Lesotho. He has since gained wide diplomatic experience as representative to Taiwan's quasi-consular 'trade offices' in Ireland, Indonesia, Australia and Houston, United States. He was Director-General of African Affairs from 1995 to 1999.

Yang was summoned to the Ministry from his Indonesian post after his predecessor was sacrificed in an August reshuffle of Premier Liu Chao-shiuan's cabinet. The government came in for heavy criticism over its sluggish response to the devastation wrought in August by Typhoon Morakot, which caused nearly 700 deaths. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Hsia resigned to take responsibility after the sending of a diplomatic cable that initially rejected offers of assistance from abroad.