Taipei: Shaw Yu-ming, the former head of Taiwan's now-defunct Government Information Office, has died at the age of 87.
According to Focus Taiwan, veteran journalist Susan Yeh disclosed Shaw's death in a message shared in the LINE group for the Republic of China chapter of the Asociaci³n Mundial de Mujeres Periodistas y Escritoras (AMMPE), also known as the World Association of Women Journalists and Writers.
Shaw's widow, Chin Hsiu-li, serves as a board director of the AMMPE's ROC chapter. Shaw was born on November 3, 1938, in the Binjiang Province of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, now part of China's Heilongjiang Province. He moved to Taiwan with his parents in 1948.
Shaw held a bachelor's degree from National Chengchi University's Department of Diplomacy and furthered his education with a master's degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. After returning to Taiwan in 1982, he taught at National Chengchi University and later headed the university's graduate program in diplomacy and the Institute of International Relations.
From 1987 to 1991, Shaw served as the director general of the Government Information Office. During his tenure, several significant policy changes occurred, including the lifting of martial law in Taiwan, the easing of press restrictions, and the removal of a ban preventing military veterans who had followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan in 1949 from visiting relatives in China. Shaw also announced the death of Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who became president in 1978 and lifted martial law in 1987.
Beyond his role at the GIO, Shaw served as the Kuomintang's deputy secretary general, led the then Coordination Council for North American Affairs, now known as the Taiwan Council for U.S. Affairs, and chaired the Public Television Service. The Government Information Office was dissolved in 2012, with its international and domestic information departments absorbed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Executive Yuan, respectively.