Chen Shui-bian

30-Second Overview: Chen Shui-bian is a complex symbol of Taiwan's democratic transition. Hailing from a tenant farming family in Tainan, he became a star lawyer due to his legal talent and entered politics during the Beautiful Island Incident. Elected Mayor of Taipei in 1994, he transformed "the government office" into a service center; in 2000, he ended the Kuomintang's 55-year rule with 39.3% of the vote, establishing three major legal foundations: the referendum law, the Basic Law for Indigenous Peoples, and the Gender Equality Education Act; he joined the WTO in 2002; after the shooting incident in 2004, he was re-elected with 0.22%. During his second term, he was involved in state secrets expenditure and the Longtan land purchase case; after leaving office in 2008, he became the first former president of the Republic of China to be detained and sentenced; he has been under house arrest since 2015. He personally made "party rotation possible" a norm in Taiwanese democracy, and also led society into the unresolved red-green rupture that persists today.

Late on March 18, 2000, Taipei streets were crowded with people. A lawyer from a tenant farming family in Tainan who graduated from National Taiwan University's Law Department through scholarships had just ended the Kuomintang's 55 years of rule in Taiwan with 39.3% of the vote. Chen Shui-bian stood on stage, shouting "Taiwan rise up!" This was not just the end of an election; it was the first time in half a century that the Taiwanese people showed the world through their votes: power could transition peacefully.

The Child of a Tenant Farming Family

On October 12, 1950, in Xizhuang Village, Guantian Township, Tainan County. His father, Chen Song-gen, was from a low-income family who made a living as tenant farmers and day laborers. Later, Chen Shui-bian described his childhood, saying he used to do homework on the floor near the window because he couldn't bear to light a lamp.¹

He graduated with excellent grades from Tainan First Senior High School in Taiwan Province and from the Judicial Branch of National Taiwan University Law Department in 1974. In 1973, he passed the bar exam as a junior, standing out among those who had very low acceptance rates at the time. After graduation, he established Hai Shang Law Firm, serving as an advisor to companies like Evergreen Marine, and was a successful lawyer.

📝 Curator's Note
Chen Shui-bian’s background as a lawyer made him extremely concerned with "procedure" and "legal systems." This characteristic later manifested in his governance through rapid revisions of regulations—supporters saw efficiency, while critics saw "tricks." This tension ran throughout his entire political career.

The Choice During the Beautiful Island Incident

At the end of 1979, the Beautiful Island Incident shook all of Taiwan. Dissident activists held a human rights rally in Kaohsiung; they were suppressed by military and police forces, and important figures like Huang Hsin-chieh were arrested and faced high-pressure trials.

Chen Shui-bian was 29 years old that year and already had a reputation as a lawyer. When defense attorney Chang Te-ming approached him to ask if he would join the defense team and defend Huang Hsin-chieh, he clearly understood what this meant: standing up for "political prisoners" under martial law rule meant risking his career and safety.

He chose to join. This decision led him from a legal professional to a political figure, and it was through this experience that he met Xie Chang-ting and Su Tseng-chang in the defense circle—they later became important figures in the democratic movement. Among the 15 lawyers in the defense team at the time, he was not the only core member, but this shared experience completely propelled him from a "maritime lawyer" to the dissident movement.

In 1981, Chen Shui-bian was elected as a Taipei City Councilor with the highest number of votes, marking his first foray into politics. In 1986, he became a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Mayor of Taipei: Turning the Government Office into a Service Center

In December 1994, Chen Shui-bian was elected Mayor of Taipei in a direct election with 615,090 votes (43.67% of the vote), defeating the incumbent official appointee from the Kuomintang, Huang Da-chou, becoming the first popularly elected mayor of Taipei and the first DPP mayor.²

In his four years in office, the most concrete symbol was not hardware, but the destructive reshaping of "civil servant culture."

Government agencies at the time were called "government offices" (ya men). The counter height at household registration offices was often over 125 cm, forcing citizens to stand and even look up at civil servants. Chen Shui-bian forcefully ordered the counters to be lowered to 70 cm, achieving "seated service," where citizens and civil servants were on equal footing, and promoted a "smiling tea serving" model. This shift in mindset—from "controlling people" to "serving people"—led the Taipei City Government to obtain ISO international certification and attracted special reports from Japan's NHK.

To eliminate the chronic issues of laziness and time-wasting, he repeatedly led media "surprise inspections" of various city government units, strictly scrutinizing "rice worms" civil servants caught drinking tea, reading newspapers, or not being at their desks. The concept that "civil servants are public servants" was put into concrete practice for the first time.

📝 Key Achievements During the Mayoral Term (1994-1998)

Transportation and Construction: The Taipei Metro Muzha Line opened in March 1996, becoming Taiwan's first operational metro line. Taipei 101 established the BOT development model during his term, serving as a major case study for Taiwan's BOT system.

Municipal Reform: Promoted mandatory garbage sorting and recycling; cracked down on special industries; service-oriented bureaucratic reform with ISO certification; political COSPLAY as Superman, Michael Jackson, and Peter Pan inaugurated a new era of Taiwanese political marketing.

Political Branding: The "Bian Hat" merchandise in 1998 transformed political support into fashion trends, marking a turning point in Taiwanese electoral culture.

Social Welfare Innovation: Promoted welfare services for vulnerable groups, including local service plans for the elderly and people with disabilities.

In 1998, Chen Shui-bian sought re-election with 80% citizen satisfaction but lost to challenger Ma Ying-jeou with 45.91% of the vote. Under normal electoral logic, a mayor with 80% satisfaction should not have lost. Subsequent analysis by political scholars pointed to structural blue-green gaps among Taipei voters: it was not his governance that failed, but the structure itself.

Losing Taipei did not prevent him from winning all of Taiwan two years later.

2000: The First Time in Fifty-Five Years

The 2000 presidential election was one of the most dramatic elections in Taiwanese history.

Internal fracturing within the Kuomintang: the party nominees Lien Chan and defecting Song Chu-yu ran, splitting the pan-blue vote. Chen Shui-bian partnered with Vice Presidential candidate Annette Lu, winning with 39.3% of the vote amid a three-way struggle, completing the DPP's journey from founding party to ruling party in only 14 years.³

📊 2000 Presidential Election Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
Chen Shui-bian	Democratic Progressive Party	4,977,697	39.30%
Song Chu-yu	Independent	4,664,972	36.84%
Lien Chan	Kuomintang	2,925,513	23.10%

Source: Central Election Commission

In his inaugural address, Chen Shui-bian proposed the "Four No's and One Nothing":

1. Do not declare independence
2. Do not change the national name
3. Do not promote the Two Nations theory into the constitution
4. Do not promote a referendum on unification or separation
5. There is no issue of abolishing the National Assembly

This was a cautious opening, attempting to find a starting point amidst a highly polarized political atmosphere.

This party rotation was defined by later political scholars as a crucial moment in Taiwan's democracy: although elections had been open before, party rotation had never occurred. After 2000, "parties can rotate" became a concrete reality of Taiwanese democracy.

First Term: Laying the Foundation for Human Rights and Democratic Legislation

Chen Shui-bian's first term faced a legislature where "the executive was small and the legislature was large": the DPP did not hold a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so policy advancement required cross-party negotiation. Nevertheless, these four years left several important legislative achievements in Taiwan's legal history.

In 2002, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). It completed membership under the name "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen Special Customs Territory," strengthening Taiwan's position under global trade rules and providing a legal framework for Taiwanese industries to connect with international supply chains.

The Referendum Act was passed in 2003. This was Taiwan's first referendum law, establishing the legal basis for direct democracy. Prior to this, Taiwan had no civil referendum system whatsoever. The passage of the Referendum Act marked the first time that citizens could directly express their will on major policies through legislation, and it is viewed by democratization researchers as the starting point of institutionalizing direct democracy in Taiwan.⁴

The Gender Equality Education Act was passed in 2004. It required schools at all levels to establish gender equality education mechanisms, prohibit gender discrimination, and establish an appeal system. This was a milestone in legalizing gender equality in Taiwanese schools.

The Basic Law for Indigenous Peoples was passed in 2005. This is the most fundamental legislation guaranteeing the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan. It established the legal status of Indigenous Peoples over traditional territories, guaranteed collective autonomy over language, culture, and education, and provided a legal framework for Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples' policies after years of advocacy finally achieving legislative success.⁵

📝 Key Human Rights Legislation During the First Term (2000–2004)

The legislation passed during Chen Shui-bian's first term laid several foundations in Taiwan's legal history:

• Referendum Act (2003): Taiwan's first referendum law, establishing a direct democracy mechanism.
• Gender Equality Education Act (2004): The legal basis for gender equality in schools.
• Basic Law for Indigenous Peoples (2005): The fundamental law establishing the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Amendment to the Indigenous Peoples Education Act (2007): Strengthening educational guarantees for Indigenous languages and cultures.

In addition to WTO accession (2002), military nationalization, government information disclosure, adjustments to historical curricula, and multilingual policies—the focus of this term's governance was "completing Taiwan's institutional face from the unfinished product at the end of authoritarianism into what a democratic nation should look like."

The promotion of military nationalization and intellectual leadership is an important contribution to democratic consolidation in Chen Shui-bian's administration that is less often mentioned. Before him, the Kuomintang’s influence permeated every level of the military command chain. After him, the term "party-military" completely exited public discussion.

The Taiwan Self-Naming Movement (Taiwan Zhengming)

Starting in 2003, Chen Shui-bian's administration promoted a series of "Taiwan self-naming movements," changing the names of some state-owned enterprises:

• "China Post" was renamed "Taiwan Post."
• "Zhongzheng International Airport" was renamed "Taoyuan International Airport."
• The passport cover featured the word "TAIWAN" in larger font.

Supporters argued that this was a necessary measure to ensure Taiwan was clearly identifiable internationally. Opponents claimed that these renaming actions provoked Beijing and exacerbated cross-Strait tensions. Some of these name changes were retained by subsequent governments, while others were changed again.

During his eight years in office, the public recognition of "Taiwan" rose from about 30% to 70%. Chen Shui-bian personally drove this process of recognition, making the concept of "Taiwan as a sovereign nation" mainstream: this also led Taiwanese society into an unhealed division of positions.

Cross-Strait Discourse: One Country on Each Side

In 2002, in a video address, Chen Shui-bian proposed "Taiwan and China: one country on each side," clearly asserting that Taiwan and China were two different nations. This discourse contrasted with the cautious wording of the "Four No's and One Nothing" during his inauguration, provoking a strong reaction from Beijing and causing concern in Washington regarding cross-Strait affairs.

In the latter part of his second term, he further proposed the "Four Yes's and One Nothing": to seek independence, to self-name, to establish a new constitution, and to develop—there was no question of alignment. He also promoted the "Taiwan accession referendum." Diplomatically, there was the controversy of "lost navigation diplomacy" involving detours, and arrangements passing through the United States also caused tension with Washington.

The cross-Strait approach he promoted centered on Taiwanese subjectivity, emphasizing Taiwan's independent existence internationally: this formed the sharpest contrast in Taiwan's cross-Strait policy compared to the "1992 Consensus" approach of his successor, Ma Ying-jeou. Different voters have vastly different evaluations of this history, reflecting the reality that Taiwanese society has not yet fully reached a consensus on the fundamental question of "what Taiwan is."

Re-election in 2004: Gunshots Before the Election

On March 19, 2004, one day before the vote, Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Lu were shot while campaigning in Tainan; both were lightly wounded. The next day, Chen Shui-bian was re-elected with 50.11% of the vote, a margin of 0.22%.⁶

The investigation into the shooting incident has been controversial and remains incompletely clarified to this day. Opposition parties questioned whether the incident affected the election results and demanded recounts. Supporters viewed it as an attempted political assassination. The interpretation of this event by Taiwanese society continues along partisan lines, making it one of the few political events in modern Taiwanese history where the truth is still disputed.

Second Term: Political Storms

2006 was a turning point for his second term. The use of state secrets expenditure came under scrutiny, and corruption cases involving confidants (including the SOGO case and the Longtan land purchase case) surfaced one after another. Former DPP Chairman Shi Ming-te launched the "Million People to Topple Bian" demonstration, gathering on Keledargan Boulevard for several weeks, demanding Chen Shui-bian's resignation.

This political storm nearly brought Chen Shui-bian's governance space to a standstill and left a profound mark of social opposition in Taiwan. Concurrently, the Peace Hospital closure during the 2003 SARS epidemic was another crisis management marker spanning terms.

Yet, even amidst the storms, major public constructions were completed or initiated during this term:

• Xueshan Tunnel (opened in 2006)
• Taiwan High Speed Rail (fully operational in 2007)
• Central Science Park development
• Keelung River remediation
• Kaohsiung Metro

📝 Curator's Note
Chen Shui-bian's second term is a typical case of what the public discourse in Taiwan cannot "separate for evaluation": within the same term, there were both the strongest cross-Strait recognition discourses, the most severe corruption storms, and the largest scale of infrastructure delivery. Any single framework (success/failure, progress/corruption) will miss half the truth of this term.

Post-Tenure Judicial Cases

On May 20, 2008, Chen Shui-bian resigned. Two months later, prosecutors launched an investigation. In 2009, a first trial sentenced him to 20 years in prison for corruption and money laundering; the final conviction came from the Longtan land purchase case: Chen Shui-bian became the first former president of the Republic of China to be detained and imprisoned. The case involved members of his immediate family (Wu Shu-zhen, Chao Jian-ming, etc.) and has long been a focal point in discussions about judicial independence and political interference in Taiwan.

In January 2015, he was granted medical parole due to health reasons and has remained under house arrest since then.

His supporters have always argued that the judicial process had flaws and that the case involved elements of political persecution. Critics maintain that the court's judgment is a normal operation of Taiwanese rule of law. This case remains a continuously cited example in discussions about Taiwan's judicial independence.

"Bian-style Vitality" in the Digital Age: Meme Interactions on Threads

In recent years, Chen Shui-bian has shown surprising digital adaptability. He interacts extremely frequently with netizens on Threads and is nicknamed the "Presidential Hell King" by users.

In April 2026, when responding to a netizen's post about "the greatest thing in life," he stated bluntly, "A low-income person from a third-tier family becoming a mayor under 50, or a president under 50," attracting massive interaction in a short time. When netizens jokingly asked if the account was run by an editor, he directly showed his phone and self-deprecatingly recounted his past of being "slandered": this style of "self-meme" unexpectedly attracted many young generations who had not experienced his term in office.⁷

From a comeback from poverty to a challenger during the authoritarian era, and finally to a prisoner entangled in corruption cases, and then to a meme symbol in the social media age: his trajectory encapsulates all the twists and turns of Taiwan's democratic transition in one body.

What He Left Behind

People from different standpoints will come to vastly different conclusions when evaluating Chen Shui-bian. But there are several verifiable facts:

The Referendum Act gave the people a legal tool for direct democracy. The Basic Law for Indigenous Peoples provided collective rights protection for groups marginalized for centuries for the first time. The Gender Equality Education Act established clear norms for gender equality in schools. The Taipei Metro Muzha Line opened during his mayoral term. Taiwan joined the WTO during his tenure. The Xueshan Tunnel and Taiwan High Speed Rail opened during his presidential term. Military nationalization became a reality under his watch.

More fundamentally, it was what he established in 2000: in Taiwan, a party that ruled for 55 years could be voted out of power.

That year, the Taiwanese people learned this was true.

Further Reading

• Chen Chih-chung — Eldest son. He was elected to the Xigang District Council three times in Kaohsiung, with two terms ending early due to legal provisions; he is ineligible to register as a candidate after 2023.
• Su Tseng-chang — Partner in the Beautiful Island Incident defense team; subsequent Premier.
• Xie Chang-ting — Partner in the Beautiful Island Incident defense team; subsequent Premier.
• Annette Lu — Vice President in 2000 and 2004.
• Shi Ming-te — Central figure in the Beautiful Island Incident; subsequent DPP Chairman; initiator of the 2006 Topple Bian movement.
• Ma Ying-jeou — Elected Mayor of Taipei in 1998, defeating Chen Shui-bian; succeeded as President in 2008.
• The Beautiful Island Incident — A major trial that spawned a new generation of politicians in 1979.
• Democratic Progressive Party — Founding party member and the first ruling party president.
• Taiwan's Democratization Process — Party rotation as a key node for democratic consolidation.

References

⚠️ This article's footnotes require further refinement: The original PR submission contained 20 root URLs (such as drnh.gov.tw / gov.taipei / nhk.or.jp) that did not point to specific pages and have been replaced with the 7 verified sources in this version. The next polish should include: (1) Specific reports on the Hachigang River incident / Nuclear Four suspension / One-time Gold reform; (2) Specific pages from the Taipei City Government or news reports regarding the "smiling tea + 70 cm counter + ISO + NHK" reforms; (3) Court judgments citing state secrets expenditure / SOGO case / Longtan land purchase case; (4) Specific post URLs and news sources for the Threads interaction section.