Chang, Yung-fa

Chang's founding of Eva Air in 1990 illustrates his business acumen. Because of the Chinese Government's refusal to recognize Taiwan as a country, Taiwan's state-owned China Airline cannot fly to many of the countries whose airlines fly into Taiwan. This provided a niche that Chang developed to the full. His airline benefits from the reciprocal rights guaranteed by international aviation agreements and from the political limitations imposed on its rival. Chang is also the founder sponsor of the largest independent "think tank" in Taiwan, the Institute for National Policy Research, which has the object of promoting research into and understanding of local and world events with implications for Taiwan.