Hsiao Bi-khim

Hsiao's maternal family's presence in the United States dates back to the Mayflower (1620).

Hsiao grew up in the city of Tainan in southern Taiwan.

She spoke Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English, and she was raised in a Presbyterian family.

She moved to the United States as a teenager and graduated from Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey.

Hsiao Bi-khim (born Bi-khim Louise Hsiao on 7 August 1971) is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat.

She is the vice president-elect of Taiwan following the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election, and will become Taiwan's first biracial vice president.

Hsiao was born on 7 August 1971 in Kōbe, Japan.

Her father, Hsiao Tsing-fen, is Taiwanese, and her mother, Peggy Cooley, is American.

Hsiao graduated from Oberlin College in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies.

She then did graduate study in political science at Columbia University and received a Master of Arts in 1995.

In the United States, Hsiao became active with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) representative office in the US, serving as an activity coordinator.

On returning to Taiwan, Hsiao became the party's international affairs director, and represented the party at various international conferences for over a decade.

After Chen Shui-bian took office as the President of the Republic of China in 2000, Hsiao served as his interpreter and advisor for nearly two years.

In January 2001, Hsiao announced her intention to run for the Legislative Yuan on the DPP ticket as a supplementary member representing overseas constituencies, citing her experience in international relations.

She was subsequently elected in December the same year.

Previously, Hsiao was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008 and again between 2012 and 2020.

Her dual US and Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship while she was holding a government position became an issue, and she renounced her US citizenship in 2002, as required by the Civil Servants Employment Law passed in 2000.

In the legislative elections of December 2004, Hsiao was reelected to the Legislative Yuan representing Taipei's first constituency, covering the northern districts of Xinyi, Songshan, Nangang, Neihu, Shilin, and Beitou.

As a legislator, she served on the Foreign and Overseas Affairs Committee (外交及僑務委員會), the Procedure Committee (程序委員會), and the Discipline Committee (紀律委員會).

Hsiao worked on a number of issues in the legislature, notably women's rights, the rights of foreigners in Taiwan, and other human rights.

Hsiao supported amending the Nationality Law to allow individuals born to at least one parent of ROC nationality to also claim ROC nationality irrespective of age, and has also proposed and cosponsored anti-discrimination and anti-domestic violence amendments to the Immigration Act.

She has also been a proponent of animal rights, proposing amendments to the Animal Protection Act, and also pushed for the passage of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act in January 2005.

In May 2005, Hsiao represented the DPP at the annual congress of Liberal International in Sofia, Bulgaria, during which she was elected a vice-president of the organization.

Hsiao alleged that she and other DPP representatives were followed throughout their visit to Bulgaria by two unidentified persons sent by the People's Republic of China embassy in Sofia.

The same month, Hsiao also started a campaign to encourage Taiwanese baseball fans to write e-mails to the New York Yankees to ask them to keep Taiwanese pitcher Chien-Ming Wang at the major league level.

Hsiao was one of the DPP lawmakers targeted by some party supporters as being insufficiently loyal, with a pro-independence radio show dubbing her "Chinese Khim" (中國琴) in March 2007, charging that she was close to the DPP's former New Tide faction.

Defended by some other DPP members, Hsiao was still not nominated to stand for re-election by the DPP in the January 2008 legislative elections, a move some attributed to being the result of that controversy.

Hsiao left the Legislative Yuan after her term expired on 31 January 2008.

She served as spokesperson for Frank Hsieh's unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.

She is also vice chairman of the Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation, a member of the board of trustees of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a member of the executive committee of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, and a founding member of the Taiwan Association for Women in Sport (台灣女子體育運動協會).

From 2010, Hsiao spent a decade representing the DPP in Hualien County, a strongly pro-Kuomintang conservative region.

In the same year, she lost with a slim minority in a by-election, but was still regarded as having broken the "iron vote" of the Kuomintang.

She then set up a Hualien service office, and continued making weekly journeys between Taipei and Hualien.

Hsiao returned to the Legislative Yuan in February 2012, elected via party list proportional representation.

In 2016, Hsiao succeeded Wang Ting-son as legislator for Hualien County.

She served as the Taiwanese representative to the United States from 2020 to 2023.

Born in Kōbe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, Hsiao grew up in Tainan, Taiwan, before moving to the United States.

She graduated from Oberlin College and Columbia University with a master's degree in political science.

A member of the DPP, she is an important figure in the party's foreign policy circles.

She formerly served as a vice president of Liberal International.