Alex Tsai

Taiwanese politician and legal scholar
Tsai Cheng-yuan
蔡正元
Tsai in 2012
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office
1 February 2008 – 31 January 2016
Succeeded byLi Yanxiu
ConstituencyTaipei City Constituency 4
In office
1 February 2002 – 31 January 2008
ConstituencyTaipei City Constituency 1
Member of the National Assembly
In office
20 May 1996 – 19 May 2000
Personal details
Born (1953-12-25) 25 December 1953 (age 72)
NationalityRepublic of China
PartyKuomintang (after 1994)
Congress Party Alliance (2018–2020)
Spouse(s)
Yen Chi-hua
(m. 1986⁠–⁠2015)

Queena Hung (洪菱霙)
(m. 2016)
EducationNational Taiwan Normal University (BEd)
National Chengchi University (MBA)
Harvard University (MPP)
Columbia University (MPhil)
Tsinghua University (PhD)

Tsai Cheng-yuan (Chinese: 蔡正元; pinyin: Cài Zhèngyuán; born 25 December 1953), also known by his English name Alex Tsai, is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar. A member of the Kuomintang (KMT), he served as a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2008 to 2016. He was one of the 3rd members of the National Assembly.

Early life and education

Tsai was born in Beigang, Yunlin, on December 25, 1953.[1] His father, Hsiu-shan, was a purchasing agent of dental equipment. As a child, Tsai worked as a child laborer in a local factory after graduating from junior high school. He graduated from Taipei Municipal Senior Vocational School of Industry and Agriculture [zh] with a specialization in mechanical engineering.[2]

After high school, Tsai graduated from National Taiwan Normal University with a B.Ed. degree and earned an M.B.A. from National Chengchi University. He then completed graduate studies in the United States at Harvard University, earning a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1983.[1]

After graduating from Harvard, Tsai won a scholarship to pursue doctoral studies in economics at Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in economics, but ultimately withdrew from the university's doctoral program (all but dissertation) after studying there from 1984 to 1987.[3][4] In 2021, he completed doctoral studies at Tsinghua University and earned his Ph.D. in law from the Tsinghua University School of Law. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "The Issue of Taiwan's Territorial Sovereignty under China's Constitutional Norms".[5]

Publications

  • Complete history of Taiwan (臺灣島史記)
  • Diary of an inmate (囚徒日記)

References

  1. ^ a b "Who's Who in the ROC [2012]" (PDF). Executive Yuan. 2012. p. 491. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  2. ^ Wang, Bai-wun (2025-06-16). "Tsai Cheng-yuan reveals his growth experience from child laborer to legislator". China Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2026-01-14 – via Yahoo News.
  3. ^ "前立委蔡正元探討台灣領土主權獲法學博士". Yahoo News (in Chinese). 2021-12-11. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  4. ^ 國立政治大學圖書館
  5. ^ "藍營的他拿到博士學位 網狂賀:恭喜真正的蔡博士". Yahoo News (in Chinese). 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2025-07-13.


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