Biographical Summary
Dr. Ta-Tung Chang (張大同) was born in Taiwan in 1951. Like many youths in Taiwan in the 1970s, Ta-Tung went to study in the United States after college and upon completing a two-year military service. He obtained his first degree in law from the National Taiwan University, continued his legal education at the Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington), and thereafter at the George Washington Law School in the US capital. He earned an LL.M degree (Master of Laws) at IU, and an S.J.D. degree (Doctor of Juridical Science) at the GWU.
After working briefly for a non-profit organization (Chinese American Society), he began his career in diplomacy in 1988 when he joined CCNAA (Taiwan’s principal representation in DC). Ta-Tung worked at CCNAA until 1994, and then returned to Taipei after an 18-year absence from home. He served in the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs at different departments, but spent most of the time working at the Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs.
In 1997, Ta-Tung was sent on an overseas assignment again to DC, where he worked at the TECRO (a name change from CCNAA) first as Deputy Director of Congressional Liaison Division, and later as Director of Political Affairs. He left TECRO in January 2004 to join the newly-formed KMT-PFP Representative Office, a political party alliance office.
In July 2008, Ta-Tung returned to TECRO and became its Deputy Representative. In September 2013, he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the ROC’s National Security Council. He served in Taipei until July 2015, when he was appointed Representative, Taipei Representative Office in Singapore.
Ta-Tung, also called “Jacob” by many friends, is an avid Chinese opera enthusiast. He performed many times when he was a college student and also performed quite a few times when he was in DC. His other hobbies are listening to music and reading books, especially on U.S. Civil War. He and his wife, Holen, have two adult daughters who are currently working in the United States.
