[citation needed], In defense of Chen, journalist Therese Shaheen of The Wall Street Journal Asia pointed out that controversy surrounding Chen can be in part attributed to the radical reforms he has tried to implement since stepping into power.[25]. Furthermore, it is widely believed in Taiwan that some of these gestures were essentially forced on him again by pressure from the United States and the PRC. One concession that the legislature made was to include a provision for an emergency defensive referendum and during the legislative debates it was widely believed that this clause would only be invoked if Taiwan was under imminent threat of attack from China as has been so often threatened. Chen Shui-bian (Chinese: 陳水扁; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the fifth president of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008.Chen is the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which ended the Kuomintang's (KMT) 55 years of continuous rule in Taiwan. John S. Chen). [1][2] Since then, Chen has been de facto released, but he is still prohibited from public speaking under the guise of "undergoing medical treatment." Chen was elected as the mayor of Taipei in 1994, largely as the result of a vote split between the KMT incumbent Huang Ta-chou and the KMT-spin-off New Party (NP) candidate Jaw Shaw-kong. It is the most common surname in the southern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. Leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party met together to discuss the unfavorable charges. In Cambodia, this surname is transliterated as Taing. Svbtle, a publishing platform. A lawyer, Chen entered politics in 1980 during the Kaohsiung Incident as a member of the Tangwai movement and was elected to the Taipei City Council in 1981. She was left paralyzed from the waist down. [26] The motion was not passed. Pan-Blue believed that his bill was only intended to benefit Chen in the coming election, as whether PRC removes the missiles would not be pressured or decided by referendum result. [2] Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Macau, and Hong Kong. Chen made his way back after making a stopover at Jakarta. Guests must be … Cao Zhi also used the surname Chen and called himself King Chen (陈王). Chen attended the inauguration of Óscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, one of the few countries that recognized the Republic of China at that time. No legislator voted against the recall motion. He passed the bar exams before the completion of his junior year with the highest score, becoming Taiwan's youngest lawyer. [52][53][54], Chen had been admitted to hospital after public protest and support. [32] There were several other incidences of corruption, which became the subject of a graft trial that also included the former president's wife and 11 other co-defendants. See his article for details. While Chen's detractors blamed Chen's poor leadership for the economic crisis, the administration blamed the legislature for blocking its relief efforts. In Cantonese, it is usually romanized as Chan (as in Jackie Chan), most widely used by those from Hong Kong. The "Free China Review" was renamed the Taiwan Review and Who's Who in the ROC was renamed Who's Who in Taiwan. However, former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui was granted a visit to Cornell University eleven years ago. Chen was shot in the stomach while campaigning in the city of Tainan on Friday, March 19, 2004, the day before polls opened on Saturday. He has stated that it was during this period that he realized the unfairness of the political system in Taiwan and became politically active as a member of the Tangwai movement. The trip to Latin America continued, however, without a US stopover. In Hakka and Taishanese, the name is spelled Chin. His approval rating reached around 70%.[12]. [24], This list includes Chen, Chan, Tran, Tan, Tang and other common spellings of 陈. The indictment filed by prosecutors states that the indicted persons obtained government funds earmarked for secret foreign affairs, yet of six supposed secret diplomatic missions, there was sufficient evidence presented for only two. The PRC has stated many times that it cares little about what Chen says, but will watch closely in the next few months to see what he does, a standard sentence that Communist China continues to quote. In many Southern Min dialects (including dialects of Hainan, Fujian, and Taiwan), the name is pronounced Tan, while in Teochew, it is pronounced Tang. In 1989, Chen was elected to the Legislative Yuan and served as the executive director of the Democratic Progressive Party caucus. Chen Hugong, a descendant of Emperor Shun, found the State of Chen in modern Huaiyang County, Henan Province. Also continuing a trend from the previous administration, the Education Ministry revised the school curriculum to be more Taiwan-centered. Having heard protests from pro-independence figures in Taiwan, he did not explicitly re-state the Four Noes and One Without but did state that he reaffirmed the commitments made in his first inaugural. Former president Chen's son stated the act was created to target the now imprisoned former president (陳水扁條款). This view point, however, is subject to change in each election campaign. Throughout the election, Chen planned to hold a referendum in 2006 on a new constitution to be enacted upon the accession of the 12th-term president in May 2008. He is colloquially referred to as A-Bian (阿扁). Talk with other fans, catch up with your favorite shows and more. Chen won the 2000 presidential election on March 18 with 39% of the vote as a result of a split of factions within the Kuomintang, when James Soong ran for the presidency as an independent against the party nominee Lien Chan, becoming the first non-member of the Kuomintang to hold the office of president. Unable to find experienced bureaucrats from his own party, Chen and his inner circle of young law school graduates retained many of the KMT administrators and delegated considerable authority. Newspapers on both sides of the Taiwan strait criticized Chen severely for scrapping the unification council although others reported that Chen may have acted in reaction towards China's Anti Secession Law. [43][44][45][46] The detention led Chen's supporters to protest that the detention of Chen for more than 600 days without proving him guilty[clarification needed] was illegal, inhumane and unjust, and a result of political revenge by the part of the Kuomintang (KMT). He also met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who promised that he would celebrate if he won the 2000 presidential elections. This was a setback for the Chen Shui-bian administration. [59] Ancestral hometowns in Fujian in mainland China have been visited by DPP leaders and their families. On May 3, 2006, Chen canceled plans to pass through the United States on his way to Latin America. We hear you, Harry. Some said that Chen's position on this issue was intended and to some degree succeeded in placating his pro-independence supporters without crossing any red lines that could trigger war with the PRC. [41][42] Through several court cases and pleads for bail, the High Court rejected his request for bail and continued to detain him in jail for another 5 months. On May 12, 2007, Premier Su Tseng-Chang resigned his position, and Chen soon appointed Chang Chun-hsiung to fill the vacant premiership. Chan is also widely used in Macao and Malaysia. Many among his critics (especially those from the Pan-Blue coalition) believed that his positions and actions showed that his seemingly conciliatory statements were merely a smokescreen to advance a hidden agenda of advancing de facto Taiwan independence. In 1975, he married Wu Shu-chen, the daughter of a physician. He was jailed in 1985 for libel as the editor of the weekly pro-democracy magazine Neo-Formosa, following publication of an article critical of Elmer Fung, a college philosophy professor who was later elected a Kuomintang legislator. In October 2003, Chen flew to New York City for a second time. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], During the Yuan-Ming transition, Chen Youliang founded the Chen Han dynasty, which helped overthrow Yuan rule and pave the way for the Ming dynasty, another Chinese golden age. In the presidential election on March 22, 2008, Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou defeated DPP candidate Frank Hsieh. Soong sued the President after Chen repeatedly accused him of secretly meeting the director of the People's Republic of China's Taiwan Affairs Office. The following day, Chen narrowly won the election with a margin of less than 30,000 votes out of 12.9 million votes counted. Svbtle Svbtle Svbtle. Chen was listed 10th in the Hundred Family Surnames poem, in the verse 馮陳褚衛 (Feng Chen Chu Wei). His Vice President Annette Lu was also reportedly shot in the leg in the same incident. This recent American stance is interpreted by Taiwan to be an expression of the increasing irritation the United States feels towards Taiwan and Chen's seemingly pro-independence gestures. Chen won a seat in the Taipei City Council as a Tangwai candidate in 1981 and served until 1985. In Korean it is transliterated Jin (진). Learn more about our most popular authors and upcoming author events at Penguin Random House. Chen's administration ran into many problems, and its policies were constantly blocked by the Pan-Blue Coalition-controlled legislature. This caused the government of the United States to follow the lead of Chen's political critics and issue a rare rebuke of Chen's actions. He suffers from paranoia of food poisoning, but he was diagnosed with serious sleep apnea. Due to the protection from the Constitution against prosecution of the sitting president, Chen could not be prosecuted until he left office, and he was not indicted, but was alleged to be an accomplice on his wife's indictment.[24]. Chen's supporters have claimed that his trial and sentencing was politically motivated retribution by the Kuomintang for his years in power. [21], In a press release issued by the Presidential Office responded that the president assured the investigators that he did not pocket a single cent of the fund. [39][40] On June 11, 2010, the High Court decided to reduce Chen's life sentence to 20 years. Of 221 lawmakers in the Legislature, all 119 pan-blue and independent legislators voted in favor of the measure, 29 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the motion. This would require approval by a three-fourths majority of the National Assembly which could authorize a referendum. If the recall passed, it would be up to the voters to decide Chen's fate in an island-wide referendum. Three days before Chen's inauguration, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the PRC issued what has become known as the May 17 Declaration. ; A publishing platform. Furthermore, he mentioned that when he took office, he thought his salary was so excessive that he cut his own salary in half, and that reduction is more than the amount he is accused of embezzling, so there is no need for him to take that money. [citation needed]. [10][11][12], During this period, the nomadic Xianbei people had systematically assimilated into China's agrarian culture and adopted Han Chinese surnames under the state directives of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei. With the support of some KMT colleagues, Chen was also elected convener of the National Defense Committee. In May 2006, his approval rating, as determined by the TSU, fell to 5.8%,[19] after a series of scandals centered on his wife and son-in-law. He met with members of the U.S. Congress through video conference and was invited to visit Washington, D.C. On his way back, he was originally scheduled to fly through San Francisco. [4], In 2019 Chen was again the fifth most common surname in mainland China. "Under the principle of popular sovereignty and self determination, we consider that the question of whether Taiwan should be united with China should be the decision of the 23 million people of Taiwan. Chen was named one of the Time 100 for 2005.[17]. Chen renamed many of the roads in Taipei, most notably the road which runs between KMT Headquarters to the Presidential Palace from "Chieh-shou Road" (介壽路 jiè shòu lù; "Longevity for Chiang Kai-shek Road") to "Ketagalan Boulevard" (凱達格蘭大道) in an effort to acknowledge the aboriginal people of the Taipei basin. Such a pledge seemed unlikely for Chen since there remained strong opposition within his own party. On May 24, 2006, his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, was taken into custody by the Taipei police on charges of insider trading and embezzlement by the opposition party. [citation needed], During summer of 2001, Chen flew to Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City, where he met with members of the U.S. Congress. Chen was educated in Mandarin Chinese, which had replaced Japanese as the national language following the end of the Japanese administration of Taiwan. [33], On September 11, 2009, Chen received a life sentence and was fined NT$200 million[34] (US$6.13 million) for embezzlement, bribery and money laundering involving a total of US$15 million (NT$490 million) in funds while in office from 2000 to 2008. [citation needed]. After being released, Chen helped found the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1986 and was elected a member of the Legislative Yuan in 1989, and Mayor of Taipei in 1994. First, by going through existing constitutional amendment procedures, this has the symbolic effect of maintaining continuity with the existing constitution which was originally written in China. Chen descends from the legendary sage king Emperor Shun from around 2200 BC via the surname Gui (媯). [citation needed]. [11], Chen lost his appeal in May 1986 and began serving eight months in the Tucheng Penitentiary (土城看守所) along with Huang Tien-fu and Lee I-yang, two other defendants in the case. He had been fighting a series of illnesses the last several years, according to his wife, Vivian Chen. [citation needed] These suspicions appeared to arise from the actions of his KMT predecessor Lee Teng-hui who now readily admits to secretly[citation needed] trying to advance de facto Taiwan independence during his presidential terms. In 2004, he won reelection by a narrow margin after surviving a shooting while campaigning the day before the election. [8][9], During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period (420-589), Chen Baxian established the Chen Dynasty (557-589), the fourth and the last of the Southern dynasties, which was eventually absorbed by the Sui Dynasty. Government websites have also tended to promote the notion that China is synonymous with the PRC instead of the ROC as was mandated by the KMT. Home; About; Support; RSS Feed; Sign up; Log in; This is the Svbtle network. The prosecutor of the case indicated that once Chen left office, his office would start the procedures to press charges against Chen. His supporters saw these positions as creative and indicative of a willingness to compromise. He said, "The Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China on the mainland are two separate countries with divided rule and do not exercise sovereignty over each other," he said. [57] Chen's illnesses are not exactly known but reports indicate that these could include nerve degeneration and sleep apnea, and could be life-threatening.[57]. "[58] Chen admitted that Chinese migrants from Fujian are the ancestors of Taiwanese and that his own ancestors migrated in the 18th century from Fujian. A 2013 study found that it was the 5th most common surname, shared by 61,300,000 people or 4.610% of the population, with the province with the most being Guangdong. By the end of his first year in office, Chen's approval ratings had dropped to 25%. In order to shore up diplomatic support, it is common for the ROC president to visit the ROC's remaining diplomatic allies; however past presidents had been prevented from visiting the Vatican because such a visit would require passage through Italy, which maintains relations with the PRC. [47][48] The Yellow Ribbon Movement took to demonstration over alleged exploitation of justice and political revenge. His use of the referendum in combination with his talk of a new constitution lead many among his reunification critics to believe that he would attempt to achieve Taiwan independence in his second term by invoking a referendum to create a new constitution that would formally separate Taiwan from any interpretation of China. During his term, Chen received accolades for his campaigns to drive illegal gambling and prostitution rackets out of Taipei. This dashed hopes that the stalemate that plagued Chen's first term would end. In an election similar to Taipei's in 1994, Chen won the 2000 presidential election on March 18, 2000 with 39% of the vote as a result of a split of factions within the Kuomintang, when James Soong ran for the presidency as an independent against the party nominee Lien Chan. Pan-Blue candidate Lien Chan refused to concede and sued both for a recount and for a nullification of the outcome while supporters held a week-long protest led by the Pan-Blues front of the presidential office in Taipei. Second, this has the practical effect of requiring the Chen administration to get the consent of the opposition Pan-Blue coalition to pass any amendments, and while the opposition is willing to consider constitutional reforms that would increase governmental efficiency, they are unlikely to support anything that would imply a de jure declaration of independence. Opponents suspected him of staging the incident for political purposes. There has long been crumbling inside the DPP that Chen has become their liability and should recall him before the presidential election. Although a supporter of Taiwan independence, Chen moderated his stance during his campaign and pledged the Four Noes and One Without in his inaugural address—that as long as the People's Republic of China has no intention to use military force against Taiwan, he would not declare independence nor change the national symbols of the Republic of China. 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