Thomas Lan-xiao

Thomas Lan-xiao (Chinese: 托馬斯·蘭驍; pinyin: Tuōmǎsī·lán xiāo; born July 14, 1948) is a Tsengian retired politician and doctor. He was the youngest president of Tseng to take office, at 32 years old at the time of his inaugration in 1980.

Lan-xiao is generally regarded as an above-average president, with many people commending his tightened immigration laws and anti-communism.

Early life
Lan-xiao was born in 1948. His parents, surnamed Chen, decided to put his given name Lan-xiao as the surname and Thomas as the first name due to them being supporters of Pierre Huang-li.

Career
Lan-xiao graduated from Tseng City National High School in 1966, and participated in anti-military protests in 1968. He graduated from Yale in 1972 with a degree in medicine.

Lan-xiao was an extremely skilled technocrat, and he was given a position in Tsengian government. Lan-xiao's popularity earned him a NPP presidential nomination in 1980. He won against other senior NPP members like Alexandre Liu or Stephen Yang.

Presidency (1980-1984)
In his presidency, Lan-xiao faced economic stagnation and increased immigration from other countries, like Mexico or South Africa. In the aftermath of the 1981 Taihua anti-immigration protests, Lan-xiao tightened immigration to Tseng, which he also hoped to curb unemployment in the country.

Lan-xiao was a part of the centrist faction of the NPP. He lost in the 1984 election to Huang-li Jia-kang, part of the conservative faction.

Post-presidency and personal life
Lan-xiao remained an important member of the NPP after he lost the election. He was appointed the Minister of Health from 1986 to 1992, and helped people living in mountainous areas of Tseng to get access for clean water (previously they had to buy bottled water or boil their own water to use).

In 2003, Lan-xiao appeared in a controversial commercial for Kuang Motors, in which he dressed up in blackface.

Lan-xiao is married to Grace Zheng, a NPP politician who represented Tseng City VI in the National State Assembly from 2012 to 2020. He speaks fluent Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Hokkien, and very basic English.