Lee Shu-chuan

Lee was born on 1 February 1958.^[1] His family home was on Liuqiu Island in Pingtung County, where the family made its living from fishing.^[2] He was the eldest of seven children, with three younger brothers and three younger sisters.^[3]

After completing junior high school, Lee left the island for the main island of Taiwan and enrolled in a vocational school, where he began learning electrical wiring.^[4] He studied at Gangshan Agricultural and Industrial Vocational School (岡山農工) in Kaohsiung before gaining admission to the National Taipei University of Technology—the first student from the vocational school to be admitted there.^[5] His father died shortly after he entered college, after which Lee supported himself through part-time work.^[5] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering,^[6] in 1979.^[7] He then completed compulsory military service in Xindian District.^[8]

In 2001, Lee earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Taipei Tech.^[9] His master's degree thesis was titled, A Study of the Common Ducting and Power Delivery Cable Cooling System (共同管道及電力輸電線冷卻節能系統之研究).^[10]

In 1981, Lee joined the Taipei City Government as a contract employee in its public works department.^[11] He entered the department when a former classmate, who had been due to report for work, was unexpectedly unable to take the position, and Lee filled the vacancy.^[11] He remained in Taipei City's public works administration for the next 26 years, advancing from a junior employee to senior engineering and managerial positions.^[11] He reached the rank of civil servant (薦任公務人員) in March 1989.^[12]

In the government public works department, Lee successively served as head of the construction office responsible for the new Taipei municipal building, deputy chief engineer, chief engineer, and deputy director.^[13] When Taipei City Hall opened in 1994, Lee was the construction director responsible for supervising and inspecting the project.^[11] He also served as a construction director for work on the Taipei City Council building.^[14] In May 2000, Lee was appointed chief engineer of the New Construction Office at the senior tenth civil-service grade.^[15] The Fuxing North Road tunnel beneath Taipei Songshan Airport, the Taipei Arena and the Maokong Gondola was among the major projects with which Lee was involved as an engineer.^[11]

In December 2002, Lee was promoted to head the Sewerage Systems Office in the Taipei City Government, and he was appointed that same month as its director.^[13][16] As director, Lee advocated accelerating construction of Taipei's sewerage network and the use of trench-less construction methods to reduce disruption caused by installing pipes in densely developed urban areas.^[13]

In February 2006, Lee became the director of the New Construction Office of the Taipei City Government Public Works Department.^[17] He held the post until September 2007.^[17][11] He then left the Taipei City Government to join the administration of Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei as director of the Taipei County Public Works Bureau.^[12][14]

After finishing his term at the Taipei County Public Works Bureau, Lee was named a deputy magistrate of Taipei County.^[18][19] After Taipei County was upgraded to the special municipality of New Taipei, Lee's title changed and he kept his post as deputy mayor of New Taipei until February 2014, when he was named Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan.^[20] Lee was appointed to the same position in the Kuomintang in January 2015,^[21] and stepped down in March 2016.^[22] On 15 December 2018, Lee was appointed the second deputy mayor of Kaohsiung in Han Kuo-yu's administration.^[23] When Han was recalled in June 2020, Lee left office. On 12 December 2022, Lee was named a deputy mayor of Taipei by Chiang Wan-an.^[24][25] Lee announced his plans to resign in February 2026, in response to opinion polls and "public expectations" that he run for the New Taipei mayoralty in the local elections.^[26][27]