Wu Den-yih
Politician and former Premier of Taiwan
Wu Den-yih (Chinese: 吳敦義; pinyin: Wú Dūnyì; born 30 January 1948) is a Taiwanese politician. He was Premier of the Republic of China from 2009 to 2012, Vice President of the Republic of China from 2012 to 2016, and Chairman of the Kuomintang from 2017 to 2020.
After graduating from National Taiwan University, Wu worked as a journalist and entered politics in 1973 with an appointment to the Taipei City Council. Wu was then elected Magistrate of Nantou County, serving from 1981 to 1989. Following two terms as magistrate, he was named Mayor of Kaohsiung in 1990. Wu remained mayor until 1998, having won the office in a 1994 direct election. He then served two full terms in the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008.
Shortly after winning a third term in the legislature, Wu was named Premier of the Republic of China in 2009. He served until 2012, when he and Ma Ying-jeou formed the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential ticket. Wu served as the tenth vice president of the Republic of China, stepping down in 2016.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Wu Den-yih” is politician and former Premier of Taiwan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Den-yih, Politician and former, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “politician and former Premier of Taiwan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57838. VIAF identifies the subject as 24450247. The Library of Congress control number is nr90017528. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2009, 2012 and 2016.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wu Den-yih”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wu Den-yih primary sources, Wu Den-yih archive and Den-yih research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wu Den-yih”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wu Den-yih” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.