Lee Hsi-ming

Lee Hsi-min (Chinese: 李喜明; pinyin: Lǐ Xǐmíng; Wade–Giles: Li Hsi-ming), also known as Lee Hsi-ming, is a retired admiral of the Republic of China (Taiwan) armed forces, and currently serves as the senior research fellow of the Project 2049 Institute in Washington, D.C.

Lee served over 40 years in the ROC armed forces. His major assignments include the Chief of the General Staff (from 2017 to 2019), Vice Minister (Policy) of National Defense (from 2016 to 2017), and Commander of the Republic of China Navy (ROCN, from 2015 to 2016). As Chief of the General Staff, Lee coordinated the policy of carrying out the Overall Defense Concept (ODC) and improving military exercises and the preparedness of joint operations. He was among the first personnel to coordinate the transfer of Chien Lung-class (Zwaardvis) submarines from the Netherlands and established an advanced submarine personnel training system before he became a submarine operations officer and captain. As a submarine captain from 1995 to 1997, he and his crew were deployed to prepare for the potential encounter with the People’s Liberation Army Navy fleets during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996. In June 2019, Lee was awarded the Order of the Cloud and Banner with Special Grand Cordon. He retired on 1 July 2019. Lee graduated from the 1977 class of the ROC Naval Academy and the 1998 class of the U.S. Naval War College.

After he retired from the post of Chief of the General Staff in 2019, Lee has advocated for an asymmetric strategy for Taiwan such as the Overall Defense Concept (ODC), to the general public. One of the examples is in his book, The overall defense concept: an asymmetric approach to Taiwan's defense (臺灣的勝算：以小制大的不對稱戰略，全臺灣人都應了解的整體防衛構想), written in 2022.