Yen Chia-kan M ^ ^ West. C. K. Yen Yen Chia-kan (23 October 1905-), known as C. K. Yen, government official who initiated the tax collection system of "land levies in kind." Beginning in 1946 he held a variety of financial posts in Taiwan and stabilized the economy of that island. He served as minister offinance of the National Government in Taiwan in 1950-54 and 1958-63 and as governor of Taiwan in 1955-57. Yen became premier in 1963 and vice president in 1966.

Born into a gentry family in Soochow, Kiangsu, C. K. Yen studied the Chinese classics at home with his grandfather and father, both of whom were scholars. He also attended modern schools in Soochow. Upon graduation from the Tao-wu Middle School, a missionary institution in Soochow, he enrolled at St. John's University in Shanghai. Like many other young Chinese of his day, he believed that science was the key to strengthening China's position in the family of nations. Accordingly, he chose theoretical chemistry as his major. Upon graduation in 1926, he became director of supplies for the Nanking-Shanghai railroad bureau in Shanghai. Yen held a variety of jobs in 1926-37, but little is known about his activities during that period. After the Sino-Japanese war began, C. K. Yen became commissioner of reconstruction in the Fukien provincial government in the winter of 1938. In August 1939 the governor, Ch'en Yi (q.v.), appointed him commissioner of finance. Yen restored Fukien to self-sufficiency by setting up a complete budget system and by reforming the system for collecting land taxes. The reform, known as "land levies in kind," dated back to pre-Ming China, when a certain percentage of rice or wheat crops was collected from farmers by local governments and sent to the emperor. Thereafter, taxes were paid in silver until November 1935, when the National Government abandoned the silver standard in favor of a managed paper currency. Because of inflation during the Sino-Japanese war, the value of tax revenues dropped precipitously. Land levies were the principal source of National Government income, but with inflation the tax revenues did not cover the expense of collecting them in the various provinces. For this reason, C. K. Yen decided to initiate a system of tax payment in grain in 1941. The new system was so successful in Fukien that in 1942 Yen was summoned to Chungking to report on land levies in kind to the Executive Yuan of the National Government. As a result, the system was extended to other provinces. Rice and wheat collections strengthened the financial situation of the National Government as well as the provinces, and soldiers at the front began to receive food supplies regularly and without delay. C. K. Yen's contribution to wartime China won him considerable renown.

C. K. Yen was appointed director of procurement of the war production board established in Chungking at the end of 1944. He assumed office in February 1945 and took charge of all procurement under the United States Lend-Lease and the British and Canadian loan programs. At war's end, he was sent to Nanking as a member of the army general headquarters planning committee for taking over party and political offices and as a standing committee member of the ministry of economic affairs committee for reorganizing industrial and mining enterprises in Japanese-occupied areas. Chinese Nationalist forces took control of Taiwan in the early autumn of 1945, and Yen went there in December 1945 as communications commissioner, again serving under Ch'en Yi, and as ministry of economic affairs representative for taking over railroad, telecommunication, and navigation facilities from the Japanese. In April 1946 he became Taiwan finance commissioner and board chairman of the Bank of Taiwan. He issued banknotes for exclusive use in Taiwan, thereby sparing Taiwan the inflation then plaguing mainland China. After Wei Tao-ming (q.v.) became the first regular governor of Taiwan in May 1947, Yen served in his administration as commissioner of finance. He retained that post after Ch'en Ch'eng (q.v.) succeeded Wei as governor in January 1949.

The influx of more than 2,000,000 Nationalist refugees in 1949 created serious financial problems in Taiwan. With many more mouths to feed and troops to support, inflation became inevitable. Accordingly, C. K. Yen undertook a currency reform in June 1949. The exchange rate of the New Taiwan Dollar (NT $) was fixed at NT $5 to US$1. The oflficial price of gold was set at NT $300 per tael, and the old Taiwan currency was exchanged for the new at a ratio of 40,000 to 1 . This reform soon brought stability to the economy of Taiwan. In December 1949 C. K. Yen was appointed chief of the second section in the office of the tsung-ts'ai [party leader] of the Kuomintang and chairman of the board of directors of the China Petroleum Corporation. The following month, he became minister of economic affairs and vice chairman of the Council for United States Aid. When Ch'en Ch'eng became president of the Executive Yuan in March 1950, Yen was made minister of finance. He held that post until 1955, when he became governor ofTaiwan. In September 1957 he was appointed minister without portfolio and chairman of the Council for United States Aid, and in 1958 he again became minister of finance. His success in financial administration was such that he was named to succeed Ch'en Ch'eng as premier in December 1963 even though he was not a veteran Kuomintang leader. Indeed, he had not become a Central Executive Committee member until 1963. The soundness of Yen's financial and economic policies was confirmed by the fact that Taiwan did not suffer a crisis when United States economic aid was terminated in July 1965. The economic growth rate and the volume of foreign trade in Taiwan continued to rise, and the index of wholesale prices was kept under firm control. In March 1966 C. K. Yen was elected vice president of the Government of the Republic of China in Taiwan. He assumed office on 20 May, at which time President Chiang Kai-shek reappointed him president of the Executive Yuan, observing that "C. K. Yen's merits will complement my weaknesses, while my merits will complement his weaknesses." After 1966 C. K. Yen often traveled abroad representing Nationalist China. In May 1967 he visited the United States at the invitation of President Lyndon B. Johnson for an exchange of views. After two days of conferences in Washington and a trip to Cape Kennedy, he visited New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu before returning to Taipei at the end of May. Yen's cogent presentation of the Chinese Nationalist case, together with his detailed knowledge of economic and financial matters, made a favorable impression on many influential groups in the United States. C. K. Yen was married to Liu Chi-shun, a native of Shanghai. They had five sons and four daughters.