Ann Kao

Kao Hung-an (; born 25 January 1984), also known by her English name Ann, is a Taiwanese engineer and politician. She worked for Foxconn until 2020, when she was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a member of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP). Partway through her legislative term, Kao was elected Mayor of Hsinchu during the 2022 local election cycle. On 26 July 2024, Kao was suspended from office and left the TPP due to corruption allegations.

Early life and education Kao was born on 25 January 1984 in Taipei, Taiwan. Her father is a computer engineer.

After graduating from Taipei First Girls' High School, Kao attended National Taiwan Normal University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering.

Kao completed her doctorate in the United States, earning her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2018. Her doctoral dissertation was titled, "Quality prediction modeling for multistage manufacturing using classification and association rule mining techniques". Her doctoral studies were partially funded by the Institute for Information Industry (III). Immediately prior to running for political office, Kao worked closely with Terry Gou as vice president of Foxconn's Industrial Big Data Office.

Legislative Yuan In the 2020 legislative election, Kao ranked third on the Taiwan People's Party's party list and was elected to the 10th Legislative Yuan via proportional representation. During the campaign period, the Central Election Commission reported that Kao held NT$8.77 million in foreign currency deposits. In February 2020, Kao was appointed head of party affairs in the city of Taichung, and the counties of Changhua and Nantou.

Hsinchu mayoralty In July 2022, the Taiwan People's Party nominated Kao as its candidate for Hsinchu mayor. Six candidates contested the office, including Lin Geng-ren of the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party's . During Kao's campaign, Mirror Media reported that her doctoral dissertation, authored at the University of Cincinnati, was allegedly plagiarized from two studies she had taken part in as a researcher. Both the research and Kao's doctoral study were subsidized by the Institute for Information Industry. She filed a defamation lawsuit against Mirror Media for publishing the allegations. Institute president Cho Cheng-hung later told the Legislative Yuan that Kao's doctoral thesis had plagiarized 70–80% of the report she had written for the III. On 25 October 2022, the III sued Kao, claiming that she had used copyrighted information in her doctoral thesis. Later, prosecutors declined to charge her for breach of trust due to insufficient evidence, ending the III's legal actions against Kao.

Separately, Lin Geng-ren accused Kao of violating the Anti-Corruption Act. Lin also questioned whether Kao had fraudulently hired her alleged partner. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau duly investigated Kao on these and other allegations, including accepting illegal political donations. The day before the 2022 mayoral election, a whistleblower brought attention to an instance of alleged intimidation by a member of Kao's legislative staff toward a former member of the staff. Despite the allegations against Kao, she won the mayoral election with 98,121 votes (45%), ahead of Shen (35.7%) and Lin (18%). Prior to taking office as mayor, investigators searched Kao's legislative offices and questioned her in regards to the allegations against her.

Upon taking office on 25 December 2022, Kao became the first female Mayor of Hsinchu, and the youngest female county magistrate or mayor in Taiwanese history. Her legislative seat was filled by Chen Wan-hui.

In June 2024, following Kao's indictment, an anonymous person launched a campaign to recall her as mayor, citing issues such as an apartment complex fire and allegations of allowing her boyfriend to "exert undue influence in city affairs." As of August, the campaign failed to gain enough signatures in a first-round petition. Organizers said the campaign had reached 53% of the required threshold of signatures in mid-December.

On 26 July 2024, Kao was suspended by Ministry of the Interior from the position of mayor due to corruption charges. Her deputy, Andy Chiu served as the acting mayor during Kao's suspension. After she was cleared of corruption charges, the Hsinchu City Government applied for Kao's reinstatement in December 2025, which was approved by the interior ministry on 17 December. Kao returned to office the following day.

Legal issues

Corruption charges related to overtime pay On 14 August 2023, prosecutors charged Kao with corruption dating back to her tenure as a legislator. Kao denied the allegations, and said that the indictment was politically motivated.

On 26 July 2024, the Taipei District Court found Kao guilty of violating the Anti-Corruption Act and the Criminal Code. The court also said that she would lose her civil rights for four years. Subsequently, she announced her withdrawal as a member of the Taiwan People's Party.

Kao appealed the case to the Taiwan High Court. In January 2025, the court paused their review of the case to seek guidance from the Constitutional Court, because the first paragraph of Article 32 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan was found to contravene Article 18 of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court declined to hear the case. The High Court reversed Kao's conviction in December 2025 and found her not guilty of embezzling funds meant to pay legislative aides. However, the High Court imposed a six-month sentence on Kao for causing a public official to commit document forgery, which can be converted to a fine.

Allegation related to property developer In September 2023, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office began investigating allegations made by Democratic Progressive Party city councilors. They alleged that Kao had improper ties to a property developer. Chen had accused Kao of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis.