Taiwnese American Lanhee Chen in Key Role on Romney Team

By John | Friday, September 7, 2012 | 11 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

Lanhee Chen Taiwnese American Lanhee Chen in Key Role on Romney Team I caught this bio piece over in the Taipei Times discussing Lanhee Chen, who heads up Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s policy division:

“Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), 34, the son of Taiwanese immigrants. … A politician with a strong academic background, Chen holds four Harvard degrees — one bachelor’s, one master’s and two doctorates, one in law and one in politics. He worked at a lobbying firm after obtaining his first degree in 1999. … In a profile of Chen in the Washington Post, freelance writer Molly Redden described him as “brilliant.” Former US secretary of labor Elaine Chao (趙小蘭), who was born in Taiwan, said Chen was a rising star in the Republican Party.”

I’m surprised I had not heard of this Chen before, considering there are not too many high profile Asian Americans in government or politics. His academic profile is quite impressive (I guess he must have had a Tiger Mom), and reminds me a bit of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindall’s credentials.

Chen’s role is focused on Romney’s policy team, which means he doesn’t necessarily dictate what Romney’s policies are, but certainly helps dig into the details and I’m sure, do opposition research against Romney’s opponents during the Republican primary as well as now against Obama.

Given he fact that most Asian Americans lean Democratic or unaffiliated, I would be interested to learn how Chen’s views on politics were shaped. His parents currently live in San Gabriel Valley in Southern California – not sure if Chen grew up there though. Obviously, the greatest initial influence in anyone’s political (as well as religious beliefs) are formed and shaped by parents.

Categories:

Current EventsPolitics

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

Facebook Comments (Beta)

dragoneyez

The greatness of this country is the fact that we can think freely as individuals. I refuse to be imprisoned in a little box where I am expected to think, act and even vote like everybody else. As a longtime Democrat, now non-partisan, I see how the intent of the leaders we have is to keep the American people divided. This is always how they have been able to control and manipulate the masses – keep them at continual odds with each other – the good ole’ “us vs. them” mentality. Are only Democrats paying through-the-roof high food and gas prices, insurance, etc.? No, WE ALL ARE. We are all in it together. If you know your politics, you know that in the entire first two years of this administration, the Democrats were in control of the House, Senate AND the White House. They had FULL and UNSTOPPABLE power to pass any bill or do ANYTHING to truly help the American people – filibuster-free. Did they? The national debt was 10.6 trillion back in 2008. It has now just hit 16 trillion.This is a huge deal. ALL OF US and those that come after us are going to carry the weight of this unimaginable debt. I don’t give a rip about the label someone wears because I’ve found that labels usually lead to highly erroneous and ignorant steretypes. If Lanhee Chen works for the betterment of the American people, and boy, do we need it at this point, then, I wholeheartedly say, “More power to him!”.
weirdalsuhf

I saw a clip of an interview he did with Fox News. In the clip they were asking him about specifics on Romney’s tax plans in regards to strengthening the economy. Unfortunately he was avoiding getting into details and didn’t look too good. I saw the clip on MSNBC though so hopefully the whole interview was better.
LTE2

Romney has made a few comments on how he would treat tax reform but also stated any plan will have to go through the Congressional meat grinder so it will not serve any great purpose offering detailed, concrete proposals.
.
He did feel mortgage and charitable deductions would survive the process. He also stated he wanted to get rid of as many tax deductions for the well to do as possible in exchange for a lower rate.
.
Credit to Romney/Ryan for discussing the federal deficit. Discussing the solutions would be about as popular as Michelle Obama telling us we should eat liver more often.
LTE2

Fiscally speaking, the next 4 years are going to be incredibly important. Obama knows about the debt pile up yet he exhibits so little concern about it.
http://twitter.com/JoshuaXanadu Joshua Xanadu

Ummm… no the Democrats did NOT have 2 years of “Unstoppable” power — filibuster-free. Everything was exposed to the filibuster. EVERY major law required the Supermajority of 60 votes to pass or face filibuster. It’s the reason why we need to reexamine the filibuster. Either you lied in your post or you are ignorant of the fact.
dragoneyez

In a political utopia with the lofty heights of Mount Olympus as the backdrop, complete with faux Greek columns, yes, such would be the case. However, when you circumvent Congress to the extent this administration has, I am not lying, nor am I ignorant, when I assert that they were, and, still are, UNSTOPPABLE.
LTE2

There were several moderate Republican Senators that could have broken the filibuster. The problem was the Democrats (including Obama) talked compromise, but never really did it in any meaningful way. This gave the moderates few reasons to be moderate.
.
As for the filibuster, if the Republicans get a majority in the Senate, the Democrats will be luvin’ on the filibuster again.
dragoneyez

To Emperor Obama, all this protocol means absolutely nothing. He does whatever he wants – and is given a pass for doing so. He already put our troops in Libya (BTW, what happened to all those anti-war protesters?), pushed the Dream Act through (it was continually rejected for 10 years), etc.. I could write a book….There is a reason why this guy was given the Nobel Peace Prize before he was even inaugurated.
LTE2

During the 2008 election Obama said in Ohio “Americans have had it too good”. I knew where we were headed if he won.
.
If I recall correctly, the Democrats poisoned pilled the Dream Act so they could make political hay with the Hispanic vote in the 2012 election. Republicans were for immigration reform and worked on the bill. I knew they weren’t thrilled with the go to college and become a citizen provision (sort of like saying if you eat your peas you can become a citizen) but there were other aspects that were far more troubling.
.
Barack Obama’s biggest problem is he never worked in a situation where he had to deal with complex issues, trying to balance factions so there is NO leadership from him, He just runs around the country making a lot of speeches to overheated college girls like it means that will solve the huge budget issues we’re facing.
.
After the 2010 beating, the Democrats were determined to get even with the Republicans and have worked to block passage of many bills while blaming the Republicans so for the past 2 years we haven’t even gotten a budget done…
.
The heart of the problem is the American people. We got the government we deserved.
dragoneyez

You’re absolutely right, LTE2. Americans also don’t realize that based on Obama’s worldview, ALL Americans are part of the “evil” 1%, hence his frantic, worldwide redistribution of our money and our jobs. All you have to do is look at labels at the mall and your grocery store. I bought some of those red & white mints that restaurants give out – “Made in Mexico.” 23 MILLION out of work and we outsource the making of candies?

Because the gov’t now controls all student loans (hence, the ultra-ubiquitous college ads), the big sell is to get an education and “get ahead”, “earn a lot of money.” What a hypocritical message from those whose slogan is “Punish Prosperity.” They make a big show about launching an all-out attack against the wealthy, yet Hollywood, certain music and sports mega-stars and people like Oprah all get a pass?

We the People, are the bosses of these abusive goons. What happened is we sat back and enjoyed the good life that resulted from burgeoning manufacturing, flourishing businesses, etc. and stopped paying attention to what the employees were doing. They (the elected ones that we hired to represent us) started slowly usurping power to the point where it is now. However, the great thing is that, when We the People, hundreds of millions of us, UNITE and wake up (and it IS definitely happening), the 535 in DC won’t know what hit ‘em.
LTE2

“Made in Mexico.” 23 MILLION out of work and we outsource the making of candies?
.
Sad simple truth is Americans never really understood the effects of trade policy. You can not have trade deficits of 100′s of billions every year and expect to have a healthy economy.
I recall when the free trade debate heated up back in the late 1980′s. I followed the issue and it never really made economic sense to me. Ross Perot was the only national figure that discussed the negatives (his great sucking sound comment) while everyone else said it would open new markets (the one true benefit) and increase wages (a fantasy). It’s pretty tough to sell a product made by a $24/hour American worker to a Chinese worker that makes $.50-$1/hour. The numbers never really worked.
While free trade has created a few economic hot spots in the US economy, you have to offset that with the large decline in jobs in other sectors. Nationally speaking, we losing money on every sale we make over seas because of the domestic costs incurred by lost manufacturing and economic activity. The money you saved buying Made In China or Made in Mexico will eventually have to spent on increased taxes or declining quality of life in the US. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
.
As much as I like to blame Barack Obama for all this, I can’t. From the time Japan came back on line as an economic power back in the 60′s until today, we have steadily worked towards being a 3rd world nation because of bad trade policy. Obama’s big problem is he can’t control his impulse to spend and he is spending heavily at a time we can not longer pay for it out of pocket. Calling spending investments is a little like calling a kid failing badly in school a hope for the future. Saying it doesn’t make it so.
.
As for the wealthy supporting Obama, I tend to agree with the thinking this might be a sort of guilt reflex. Doing so well, many of these people start feeling uncomfortable about themselves. If people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the Hollywood set care so much, skip the foundations and put their money to work now for those who need help.

8 Asians