Huang Jie (politician)

For other uses, see Huang Jie (disambiguation).

Huang Jie (Chinese: 黃捷; pinyin: Huáng Jié; Wade–Giles: Huang² Chieh²; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: N̂g Chia̍p, born 19 January 1993) is a Taiwanese politician and a former member of the New Power Party. She was elected to the Kaohsiung City Council in 2018, representing Fongshan District. Huang is known for questioning the policies of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu.^[1][2] In the 2024 Taiwanese legislative election, she was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party to represent the sixth constituency of Kaohsiung, making her the first openly gay member of the chamber.^[3]

Huang Jie MLY
黃捷
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the Legislative Yuan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2024
Preceded by	Chao Tien-lin
Constituency	Kaohsiung VI
Kaohsiung City Councillor
In office 25 December 2018 – 31 January 2024
Constituency	District 9 (Fongshan)
Personal details
Born	(1993-01-19) 19 January 1993 (age 32) Fongshan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Political party	Democratic Progressive Party (2023–present) New Power Party (2018–2020) Independent (2020–2023)
Education	National Taiwan University (BS)

Education

Huang graduated from Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School and attended National Taiwan University, where she received a degree in public health and sociology. After graduating, she was admitted to the graduate program at the Institute of Environmental Health at National Taiwan University, but soon took leave of the program to be a journalist and later a legislative assistant for the New Power Party. After returning to the program and taking a second leave of absence, she returned to Fongshan to run for city council.^[4]

Kaohsiung City Council

Huang is known for criticizing Han Kuo-yu's plan to establish a free economic zone in Kaohsiung in a viral video where she rolled her eyes after Han seemed unable or unwilling to give details about his plan.^[5][6] She left the New Power Party on August 26, 2020.^[7]

On February 6, 2021, she faced an unsuccessful Kuomintang-led recall attempt, with 65,256 voting against the recall versus 55,394 voting in favor and a 41.54% turnout; furthermore the number of votes in favor of the recall did not meet the required threshold of 25% of eligible voters, or 72,892 votes. The recall attempt was viewed by Huang's supporters as retaliation for her role in the successful recall of former mayor Han Kuo-yu.^[8]

Legislative Yuan

Huang in 2020

In August 2023, Huang joined the Democratic Progressive Party and became its candidate for the Legislative Yuan representing Kaohsiung city's sixth constituency for the 2024 Taiwanese legislative election held on 13 January. She obtained 113,670 votes (51.01%) against the Kuomintang's Chen Mei-ya [zh], and the Formosa Alliance's Kuo Pei-hung [zh]. Huang also became the first openly gay candidate to be elected to the Legislative Yuan.^[3] Aged 31 when she was sworn in, Huang is also the youngest member of the 11th Legislative Yuan.^[9]

On 2 October 2024, Huang was included in the "100 Next" emerging leaders list of the Time magazine for the passion about human rights and the advancement of public good, and speaking out for the underrepresented groups.^[10][11]

Awards

In December 2024, Huang Jie was included on the BBC's 100 Women list.^[12]