Chen Shui-bian

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Lore & Background

Chen Shui-bian was born to an impoverished tenant farming family of Hoklo ethnicity in Guantian District, Tainan County. He graduated from National Taiwan University in 1974 and became Taiwan's youngest lawyer after passing the bar exams with the highest score. He made a name for himself as a human rights lawyer and supporter of Taiwanese independence, defending participants of the Kaohsiung Incident in 1980. He entered politics as a Tangwai candidate, winning a seat on the Taipei City Council in 1981. In 1985, he was sentenced to a year in prison for libel related to his editorship of Neo-Formosa; his wife Wu Shu-chen was paralyzed from the waist down after being hit by a hand tractor driven by Chang Jong-tsai shortly after he lost a county magistrate election. He served eight months in the Tucheng Penitentiary and upon release in 1987 joined the DPP. He was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1989 and served until 1994, when he became the first directly-elected DPP mayor of Taipei. As mayor, he led reforms to improve the civil service, oversaw the construction of the Taipei Metro to completion, and launched a crackdown on crime and prostitution. He lost the 1998 mayoral election to Ma Ying-jeou despite a positive approval rating.

Reader's Guide

Chen Shui-bian's presidency marked a historic turning point in Taiwan's political history, as he became the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party, ending the Kuomintang's 55 years of continuous rule. His 2000 victory, achieved with 39% of the vote due to a split in the KMT between James Soong and Lien Chan, represented the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition party in Taiwan. His re-election in 2004 was hotly contested and polarizing, with a narrow victory over a joint ticket of his 2000 rivals, Lien and Soong. Chen's legacy is complicated by his post-presidency: he was arrested in November 2008 on corruption charges, sentenced to life imprisonment (later commuted to 20 years), and released on medical parole in 2015. His tenure saw continued debate over Taiwan's identity and relations with China, though the source notes he pledged the Four Noes and One Without in his inaugural address. His mayoral record included infrastructure and anti-crime initiatives, but his presidency was succeeded by Ma Ying-jeou after the KMT defeated the DPP in a landslide in the 2008 elections.

Did You Know?

• Chen Shui-bian was not formally issued a birth certificate until 18 February 1951 because of doubts he would survive.
• He passed the bar exams before completing his junior year with the highest score, becoming Taiwan's youngest lawyer.
• His wife Wu Shu-chen was paralyzed from the waist down after being hit twice by a hand tractor driven by Chang Jong-tsai in 1985.
• Chen was sentenced to a year in prison for libel in 1985 due to his editorship of Neo-Formosa, and the Transitional Justice Commission overturned the charges in May 2022.
• He was released from prison on medical parole in 2015 after his life sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment.