Chen Chih-chung: From the Spotlight of the First Family to Political Ups and Downs Under the 'Blacklisting Clause'

30-Second Overview: Chen Chih-chung, son of former President Chen Shui-bian, was once a promising law student whose political career was derailed by his family's money laundering scandal. He was elected Kaohsiung City Councilor twice with the highest vote share in his constituency, yet was removed from office three times due to legal cases. Ultimately, the 2023 "blacklisting clause" amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act appeared to end his political path. However, on emerging social media platforms like Threads, he has attempted to build a new digital image — one stripped of traditional political solemnity — through humorous, almost buddy-like interactions with his father Chen Shui-bian.

In 2008, a sudden family upheaval completely altered the course of Chen Chih-chung's life. Originally preparing to pursue a doctorate in law in the United States, Chen was forced to interrupt his studies and return to Taiwan after the eruption of the overseas money laundering case involving his father, Chen Shui-bian. The scene of him being surrounded by media at the airport marked not only his fall from "first family" legal elite to the defendant's seat, but also foreshadowed more than a decade of political turbulence entangled with judicial controversy ¹.

From Golden Boy to "Son of the海角"

Chen Chih-chung was born in Taipei in 1979, the eldest son of former President Chen Shui-bian and former Legislative Yuan member Wu Shu-chen. He graduated from the Department of Law at National Taiwan University and subsequently earned master's degrees in law from the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University — a flawless academic trajectory. However, after Chen Shui-bian stepped down from the presidency in 2008, the family's overseas money laundering case and the Second Financial Reform case were successively exposed, and Chen Chih-chung and his wife were drawn into the proceedings ².

In 2009, Chen Chih-chung and his wife entered a guilty plea and sought a negotiated judgment in the money laundering case, but the deal ultimately collapsed when Swiss banks were unable to remit the funds back to Taiwan. In July and September of the same year, Chen was indicted on charges of perjury and money laundering, respectively. These cases not only brought his academic career to an abrupt halt but also cast a long shadow over his future political path.

Three Political Interruptions and Comebacks

Despite being mired in judicial turmoil, Chen Chih-chung actively sought a political stage. In 2010, he ran as an independent candidate for Kaohsiung City Councilor in the Cianjhen and Siaogang districts, winning the highest vote share in the constituency with 32,947 votes (16.83% of the vote), demonstrating the deep political influence his family wielded in southern Taiwan ³. However, this political honeymoon was short-lived. In August 2011, Chen was sentenced to three months in prison for perjury, a ruling that was upheld on appeal, and was removed from office for the first time — his councilor tenure lasting only eight months ⁴.

He subsequently attempted to transition to a Legislative Yuan bid but was unsuccessful. In 2013, Chen applied to rejoin the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) but was rejected due to the party's "five-year clause" restriction. It was not until 2015, when his father Chen Shui-bian was granted medical parole, that Chen Chih-chung's political fortunes shifted. The DPP Central Committee lifted the "five-year clause" restriction, allowing him to rejoin the party. In 2018, Chen ran again for Kaohsiung City Councilor and was elected. During this period, Chen Shui-bian appeared multiple times to campaign for his son, even at the risk of violating the terms of his medical parole, revealing both deep father-son bonds and a desire for political legacy ⁵.

The End Under the "Blacklisting Clause" and a New Turn

In April 2023, Chen Chih-chung was sentenced to one year in prison for money laundering in the Longtan land purchase case, a ruling that was upheld on appeal. He was removed from office for the second time and sent to serve his sentence ⁶. In May of the same year, the Legislative Yuan passed a third reading of an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, adding the so-called "blacklisting clause," which stipulates that anyone convicted of offenses under the Money Laundering Control Act or related statutes is permanently barred from running for public office. This amendment was widely seen as a fatal blow to Chen Chih-chung's political career ⁷.

Yet just as the doors of traditional politics appeared to close, Chen Chih-chung found a new outlet in the digital sphere.

📝 Curator's Note: In the age of Threads, the "persona" of a politician is moving from the altar to the living room. Chen Chih-chung's social media interactions with Chen Shui-bian are less a form of political mobilization and more a digital curation of the "ordinary family," an attempt to use humor to dissolve the weight of judicial labels.

"Water" on Threads and an Unconventional Father-Son Dynamic

In early 2026, after both Chen Shui-bian and Chen Chih-chung joined the social media platform Threads, the father-son duo's private interactions unexpectedly became an internet sensation. Chen Shui-bian revealed on Threads that Chen Chih-chung does not call him "Dad" at home — instead, following his mother Wu Shu-chen's lead, he calls him "Water."

This peculiar nickname is not a direct transliteration but a chain of wordplay rooted in "Chen-style humor": it traces back to Chen Shui-bian's famous campaign slogan, "有夢最美，希望相隨" ("With dreams, beauty; with hope, companionship"), in which the character 美 (měi, "beauty") is pronounced súi in Taiwanese Hokkien. This was then translated into the English word "Water" (a homophone of súi and carrying the connotation of "remembering one's roots"). Chen Shui-bian even shared an old photo, recalling that when Chen Chih-chung received the Mayor's Award, he had personally written "Water" in the parent field on the certificate ⁸.

Chen Chih-chung also frequently posts photos with his father on Threads, jokingly describing his actions as "righteous acts of turning against one's own kin" (usually referring to playfully roasting his father or sharing amusing anecdotes), sparking enthusiastic engagement from netizens ⁹. This social media register — stripped of political solemnity, laced with self-deprecation and humor — has allowed Chen Chih-chung to build a new, more relatable image among younger generations.

"Why not use Chen Shui-bian WATER? That's even cooler." — Chen Chih-chung responding to his father's account name suggestion on Threads.¹⁰

Chen Chih-chung's story — from the spotlight of the "first family," to the "son of the 海角" behind bars, to a Threads social media personality — reflects the multiple variations of a Taiwanese politician navigating the currents of judicial proceedings, public opinion, and the digital wave. After being released on parole in 2024, though shackled by a lifetime ban from running for office, he continues to exist and resonate in the deep waters of Taiwan's politics and society through the Ketagalan Foundation and social media ¹¹.

Further Reading:

• Chen Shui-bian: From a poor farming family to Taiwan's first popularly elected president — how did he rewrite Taiwan's political history, and why did he end up behind bars?
• Taiwan's Judicial Reform: From the Chen case to the blacklisting clause — how has Taiwan's judiciary responded to societal expectations and political pressure?
• Social Media Politics: How are platforms like Threads changing the way Taiwan's politicians communicate with voters?

References