Lo Chih-chiang

Lo Chih-chiang (; born 26 March 1970) is a Taiwanese politician. He is a member of the Kuomintang (KMT). From 2010 to 2013, he was first the spokesperson and then the Deputy Secretary-General of the ROC Presidential Office. He was elected to the Taipei City Council in 2018. In 2020, at the invitation of KMT chairman Johnny Chiang, he assumed the directorship of the party school, the Institute of Revolutionary Practice.

Early life and education Lo was born in Hualien City on March 26, 1970. His parents moved to Taiwan from the Dachen Islands during the 1955 Dachen Evacuation. His father, Lo Hsia-yu, was a construction worker who was a native of the islands. When Lo was three years old, the family moved to Keelung City.

After graduating from Keelung Senior High School, Lo earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree in business management from National Sun Yat-sen University. As a student, Lo was active in debate activities and co-founded the Chinese Speech and Debate Association with Chao Tien-lin.

Later, Lo attended law school at National Chengchi University, where he earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 2004. His law school dissertation was titled, "A study of the dispute over the international legal status of the Republic of China (Taiwan)". He then worked as a legal assistant under Chen Changwen at the law firm of Lee and Li. At the recommendation of Chen, Lo joined the presidential campaign of Ma Ying-jeou. From 2015 to 2016, Lo was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School.

Political career In 1998, Lo ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Kaohsiung City Council as an independent, receiving 3000 votes.

Political staffer Prior to taking office as the presidential spokesperson, Lo served a spokesperson for the Ma-Siew campaign during the 2008 Taiwanese presidential election and the deputy president of the Central News Agency.

Lo was the deputy campaign manager for Ma Ying-jeou and Wu Den-yih during the 2012 ROC Presidential election.

Lo resigned from his position on 12 September 2013 due to the issues regarding the allegation of the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office against a speaker engaging in influence peddling in a judicial case, as well as other personal and family reasons.

In November 2013, Lo was then awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon by President Ma for his service in the administration.

Political campaigns On 24 February 2018, Lo announced his candidacy for District 6 of the Taipei City Council, which includes both Daan District and Wenshan District. 25 people registered to stand for the election with 13 open seats. On 24 November 2018, as part of the 2018 Taiwanese local elections, Lo won 40,391 votes, 13.69% of the total votes, becoming the highest vote-getter in the 13th Taipei City Council election, and received the highest number of votes in 20 years.

On 26 November 2018, two days after winning his city council campaign, Lo became the first candidate to his intention to contest the Kuomintang nomination for the 2020 Taiwan presidential election through Facebook. He withdrew from the 2019 Kuomintang presidential primary on 7 April 2019.

On 26 January 2020, after reaching 1 million fans on his Facebook Page, Lo fulfilled his earlier promise and announced candidacy for the 2022 Taipei Mayoral election. Lo declared his candidacy for the Taoyuan mayoralty in April 2022, despite the Kuomintang's repeated requests that he delay his announcement. Lo resigned from the Taipei City Council to focus on his mayoral campaign. After a closed-door meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee later that month, Chang San-cheng was formally nominated, despite the interest of Lo and legislators and Lu Ming-che.

Leadership positions In 2020, Lo assumed the unpaid voluntary post as the director of the KMT's party school and educational wing, the Institute of Revolutionary Practice Directorship, along with Taipei City Council Member Yu Shu-hui and Taichung City Council Member Huang Chien-hao as the institute's deputy directors. Lo announced the "Future Salon" series, discussions on current events with experts and three to five young audience members as guests. Former President Ma Ying-jeou and Chairman Jonny Chiang were the inaugural guests of the live stream.

Awards and honors Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon – Taiwan (Republic of China) 2013 HuaiEn Literature Award - HuaiEn Charity Foundation

Personal life Lo is married to Huang Xui-Ling (Chinese: 黃雪玲) with two daughters.