Shao Yu-ming

Shao was born on 3 November 1938 in what was then Manchukuo's Binjiang Province. He moved to Taiwan in 1948, reuniting with his parents. Shao earned a bachelor's degree from the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University, completed a master's degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, then obtained a PhD in history at the University of Chicago,^[1][2] where he specialized in Chinese history.^[3] While attending UChicago, Shao participated in a protest about the Senkaku Islands dispute,^[4] and met Jason Hu for the first time, a fellow member of the Kuomintang who would later succeed him at the Government Information Office.^[5] Upon returning to Taiwan in 1982, Shao began teaching at NCCU.^[1][2] Through 2012, Shao continued to hold a professorship at his alma mater.^[6]

He served as director-general of the Government Information Office from 1987 to 1991.^[7] During his tenure, the first GIO emblem was designed. It featured a map of China and the flag of the Republic of China, and remained in use from 1988 through 2001.^[8][9] The Taiwanese government lifted restrictions on civilian travel to China, then Shao's GIO eased similar limitations on people employed by mass media outlets.^[10][11] Shao later told Chiu Fu-sheng, the producer of the film A City of Sadness (1989) that approving the film nearly caused Shao's firing from the GIO.^[12]

In the early 2000s Shao served as chairman of the Central Daily News.^[13][14] He left the post in 2003, when a merger with the China Daily News was underway.^[15] Around the same time, Shao was also the Kuomintang's deputy secretary general. By 2003, Shao had stepped down as deputy secretary general, but retained his seat on the Central Committee.^[16] He was a member of the Straits Exchange Foundation until late 2002.^[17] In 2005, Shao was considered for a vacancy on the National Communications Commission.^[18] He later chaired the Coordination Council for North American Affairs.^[19]

In July 2013, Shao was elected chair of the Public Television Service.^[20] At the time, PTS board meetings had been delayed for two and a half years as the Ministry of Culture struggled to fill vacant board seats.^[20][21] In November of the same year, TBS Dispatch Workers' Union began protesting to draw attention to the fact that PTS classified a fifth of its workforce as temporary employees, and demand that Shao formally place those employees on payroll.^[22] On 22 December 2013, Shao attended a mass media forum in China, alongside Central News Agency president Chen Kuo-hsiang and over 70 other media professionals.^[23][24] Chen and Shao were sharply criticized by members of the Legislative Yuan affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party.^[25] Following the Sunflower Student Movement, Shao promised to investigate programing alterations made by PTS on 31 March 2014, which resulted in a reduction of protest-related coverage as the protest was live.^[26] In 2015, Chinese Television System seated Shao to a task force responsible for managing the station's debt.^[27] In 2016, Shao vowed that detailed content moderation guidelines would be developed and implemented on PTS's citizen journalism platform PeoPo, after a PeoPo community member posted video of herself insulting elderly waishengren.^[28]

Shao died in Taipei on 7 February 2026, at the age of 87. He was married to Chin Hsiu-li [zh], a member of the board of directors for the Republic of China chapter of the Asociación Mundial de Mujeres Periodistas y Escritoras.^[1][2]