Chen Shui-bian (1951– )

Taiwanese president 2000–2008. A member of the Min-chu Chin-pu Tang (MCT; in English the Democratic Progressive Party or DPP), he broke the 51-year hold on power by the Kuomintang (Guomindang, nationalist party) when he became president in May 2000. A former lawyer, he was jailed for eight months in 1986 on charges of defaming a member of the Guomindang. A charismatic populist, he gained a reputation between 1994 and 1998, when mayor of the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, for improving transportation and cracking down on prostitution. He was re-elected president in March 2004 by a narrow margin, but his popularity was undermined during his second term because of allegations of corruption, which led to street protests and opposition calls for his resignation, in 2006.

The son of illiterate sugar plantation labourers in southwest Tainan County, Taiwan, he won a place at Taiwan's National University as the best student in the county. He studied and practised law, becoming politicized after unsuccessfully defending pro-independence dissidents in 1980. He was elected to Taipei's city council in 1981, as an opponent of the Guomindang. He joined the MCT after political parties were legalized in 1987 and was elected to parliament in 1989, before becoming Taipei's first popularly elected mayor in 1994. He lost his bid for re-election in 1998, but was elected Taiwan's president in March 2000 with 39% of the vote. He attracted support by pledging to attack corruption and ‘money politics’.

Despite the MCT's pro-independence position, Chen sought to reassure China by pledging that he would not hold a referendum on Taiwan's independence, and declared that he was anxious to reduce tensions with mainland China, establish closer economic ties, and re-open channels of communication.