Hsu Hsin-ying

Hsu Hsin-ying (; born 23 April 1972) is a Taiwanese politician and civil engineer. Prior to joining the Kuomintang (KMT) in 2009, Hsu was an independent. She left the KMT to found the Minkuotang (MKT) in 2015. In 2019, the MKT was absorbed by the Congress Party Alliance. Hsu rejoined the Kuomintang in 2022, and was reelected in the 2024 legislative election.

Early life and education Hsu was born in Xinfeng, Hsinchu, on April 23, 1972. She is of Hakka descent. She graduated from Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School, where she played basketball, softball and athletics.

After high school, Hsu graduated from National Cheng Kung University with a bachelor's degree in engineering. She then earned a master's degree in 1997 and her Ph.D. in civil engineering from National Chiao Tung University in 2007. Her doctoral dissertation was titled, "Improving global gravity anomaly models and shallow sea gravity anomalies using multi-satellite altimetry data" (Chinese: 利用多衛星測高資料改善全球重力異常模型以及淺海區重力異常).

Engineering career After receiving her doctorate, Hsu began working as a researcher for the Ministry of the Interior. She then moved to the private sector, joining the Da Shi Dai Surveying and Construction Consulting Company. She also taught at Minghsin University of Science and Technology.

Political career

Political beginnings Hsu first ran for office in 2005, for a position on the Hsinchu County Council, for which she was defeated. After joining the Kuomintang in 2009, she won and served on the county council, before winning a Legislative Yuan seat in the 2012 elections as a member of the Kuomintang. In that election, Hsu won 171,466 votes, the most of any one candidate that year. Hsu was reelected to the KMT's Central Standing Committee in August 2014, but did not serve a full one-year term. Instead, she split from the party in January 2015, and founded the Minkuotang (MKT) in March, serving as the MKT's first chair.

2016 campaigns Hsu ran for reelection in Hsinchu County until People First Party chairman James Soong named her the vice presidential candidate for his 2016 presidential campaign in November 2015. The PFP–MKT coalition finished third in the presidential election and the MKT lost its only seat in the Legislative Yuan.

Later political career Hsu contested the Hsinchu County magistracy in 2018. She finished second of four candidates, with 32.29% of the vote.

Following her loss to Yang Wen-ke, Hsu resigned the Minkuotang leadership on 29 November 2018, and the party merged into the Congress Party Alliance on 25 January 2019.

Hsu rejoined the Kuomintang in May 2022, and began her Hsinchu County legislative campaign in March 2023. She was reelected in the January 2024 legislative election.