Andrew Hsia (Chinese: 夏立言; pinyin: Xià Lìyán; born 24 December 1950) is a Taiwanese politician who is a vice chairman of the Kuomintang. He was minister of the Mainland Affairs Council from February 2015 to May 2016, and was chairman of the Association of Foreign Relations (AFR) from 2017 to 2022. Since 2023, he continues to serve on the AFR Board as managing supervisor.
In mid of August 2005, Hsia protested to the United Nations (UN) for naming the People's Republic of China (PRC) as one of the founding member of the UN that signed the United Nations Charter during an exhibition commemorating 60th anniversary of the UN, instead of the Republic of China (ROC). He stressed that in 1945, it was the ROC who were the China, since PRC was only founded in 1949.[8]
After being appointed ROC representativetoIndia in June 2007, Hsia said that he hoped to work on securing India's support for Taiwan's membership in the World Health Organization of the United Nations. He also would focus on trade, tourism and technological exchanges between the two.[9]
During his term as the ROC representative to Indonesia, Hsia actively promoted bilateral exchanges between Taiwan and Indonesia in the field of trade, culture and education. He was involved in the joint development of Morotai IslandofNorth Maluku province and an industrial park in Jakarta.[11]
Commenting on the barring of the Taiwanese delegation to attend the 3rd Jakarta International Defense Dialogue (JIDD) in Jakarta in March 2013, Hsia said that he was not pleased with the incident since this conference is about regional security and Taiwan is certainly one of the major player. The Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta demanded an explanation from the Government of Indonesia regarding the incident.
Indonesia, represented by the JIDD organizing committee chairperson, responded by saying that the Ministry of Defense of Indonesia had received a verbal complaint from the Chinese Embassy asking them to discourage the Taiwanese delegates from attending the conference.[12]
On 22 October 2013, Premier Jiang Yi-huah named Hsia to fill in the position of Deputy Minister of the National Defense, in which Hsia will be tasked to oversee arms procurement policies.[13][14][15]
The position had been vacated for more than 2 months since 1 August 2013 when then-Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang was promoted to the Minister position after the resignation of then-Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu due to the death scandal of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu.
In December 2023, Hsia led a KMT delegation to mainland China as a "mission to maintain contacts." The trip came under scrutiny in the run-up to the 2024 elections.[18]
Hsia visited mainland China again in March 2024 to meet Taiwanese business communities. His trip included visits to Chongqing, Chengdu, Jinan, and Qingdao. During the trip he said that he would "supervise" the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government's interactions with Beijing, amid worsening cross-strait relations.[19]