John Cheng

"Not to be confused with John Chen or John Ching."John Cheng (Chinese: 約翰·程; pinyin: Yuē hàn · Chéng; born December 26, 1956) is a Tsengian politician and author who is currently the President of Tseng since 2016.

Early life and education
John Cheng was born on December 26, 1956, in Taihua, Georgeville. Cheng attended National Taihua High School from 1972 to 1975 and studied Chinese at the National Institute of Arts, Science, and Technology (NIAST), graduating in 1979. After finishing school he was called to serve in the Tseng Armed Forces, serving in the navy from 1979 to 1983.

Early career
Cheng worked briefly worked as a journalist for the Taihua Bulletin and the Taihua branch of the Tseng Times after his service, and eventually signed a contract with Tseng City Publishing Group. Influenced by other Tsengian novelists including Xiang Junjie, Marc-Jean Zhong, and Wang Meifan, he released his debut novel Port Elizabeth (伊莉莎白港) in 1985, about a Tseng that is still under British rule.

However, Cheng's works, which dealt with alternate history, were hardly noticed. In 1988, after years of poor sales, he was cut from his contract.

Political career (1988-2016)
Cheng decided to get involved in politics instead of being a "commentator" as he did when he was a novelist. He became a member of the National Prosperity Party (NPP), first serving as the governor of Huahe county from 1988 to 1992. Cheng later became mayor of his hometown Taihua, from 1992 to 2000, before becoming a member of the National State Assembly for Taihua II district. In 2003, while a member, he switched his party affiliation from the NPP to the People's Democratic Party (PDP), citing "the change of personal opinion".

Presidency (2016-)
On January 5, 2016, John Cheng won the PDP nomination and chose Wang Qing-lai as vice-president. Chang ran for president in the 2016 election. He won, with 9,901,256 votes for him versus his opponent, William Wu, who had 9,058,178 votes.

Cheng was reelected in the 2020 election. His reaction to the was swift. He imposed a lockdown and closed down everything except "essentials" like grocery stores.

On February 24, 2022, he agreed to impose economic sanctions on due to the.

Political views
Cheng is described as centre-left. He opposes the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and is pro-US (as with all but 2 of the Presidents of Tseng). Cheng is the first president in Tsengian history to indirectly support LGBT rights, saying "everyone should love who they want." in an interview with NPR in 2019.

Personal life
In 1986, he married Isabelle Su, and they have three children. Cheng speaks Mandarin and Hokkien, and also some English. He is of Hokkien descent.

Cheng is an avid bibliophile. In his university days, he read up to 200 books a week, and in the Presidential House there is an entire room devoted to his books that is not part of the national library.