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Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁
Eleventh-term President, Republic of China (Taiwan)
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Chen
Shui-bian was born in Guantian Township 官田鄉, Tainan County, on February
18, 1951. The son of a poor tenant farmer, he recognized early on that
education was the passport to a better life. His pursuit of academic excellence
led him to graduate from the Law Department of National Taiwan University
in 1974, from which he received an LL.B. with honors. He became the nation's
youngest lawyer, passing the national bar examination while still a junior
in college.
From 1976 to 1989, Mr. Chen was a successful attorney and senior partner at the Formosan International Marine and Commercial Law Office. His first politically related case─defending staff members of Formosa magazine and other democracy activists against charges of sedition and riot following the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident 美麗島事件─led him into a lifetime of political activity.
Mr. Chen first ran for public office in 1981. With a campaign slogan of "democracy, checks and balances, and progress," he was elected to the Taipei City Council with the highest number of votes. In 1987, he joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the country's first newly legalized opposition party after the lifting of martial law. In 1989, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan and served as executive director of the DPP caucus.
In 1994, Mr. Chen was selected as one of the world's top 100 leaders of the new century by Time magazine. He also won the Taipei mayoral election in the same year. After taking office, he greatly improved the city's transportation and traffic conditions and cracked down on crime. In 1998, Taipei was selected by Asiaweek as one of the top five Asian cities.
On March 18, 2000, Mr. Chen was elected as the tenth-term president of the Republic of China (Taiwan). His administrative agenda focused on reforming government infrastructure, galvanizing the economy, pursuing new diplomatic strategies, and promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait.
To improve the overall investment environment, President Chen convened the Economic Development Advisory Conference in 2001, which produced consensuses on 322 measures. Under his leadership, Taiwan has maintained steady economic performance, and in 2005 it was the world's 16th-largest trading nation, achieving high rankings in international competitiveness surveys.
President Chen was awarded the 2001 Prize for Freedom by Liberal International in recognition of his unwavering commitment to freedom and human rights. He firmly believes that human rights form the core foundation of every constitutional democracy. Consequently, under his administration, the government has striven to make Taiwan "a nation built upon the principles of human rights." His administration has also paid special attention, through institutional and funding measures, to the needs of farmers, fishermen, laborers, women, the elderly, and the disadvantaged, and has promoted the cultures of the Hakka and indigenous minorities.
To further democratize Taiwan, President Chen resolutely pushed for a law to institute the use of national referendums. As a result, Taiwan's first national referendum, a milestone in the country's journey to full democratization, was held on March 20, 2004, the same day he was re-elected for a second term. President Chen has since emphasized the need for thorough re-engineering of the Constitution in order to enhance good governance, foster a solid foundation for the rule of law, and ensure Taiwan's long-term stability and prosperity.
President Chen has always placed utmost importance on improving relations across the Taiwan Strait and has made innumerable goodwill gestures toward China in the hope of building a peace and stability framework for cross-strait interactions. For his crucial role in this regard, he was listed among the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2005.
By September 2006, President Chen had gone on 11 overseas tours and visited over 20 diplomatic allies to promote democracy, prosperity, cooperation, and friendship. Under his leadership, Taiwan overcame 12 years of diplomatic obstacles to be admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2002. In April 2005, he became the first president from Taiwan to break China's diplomatic blockade and visit Europe when he attended the funeral mass of the late Pope John Paul II.
As ever, President Chen remains committed to uplifting the nation by continuing to pursue political reform and consolidate democracy, promote human rights, strengthen environmental protection, and encourage sustainable development. Fully aware of the ROC government's key role in creating lasting peace in East Asia and the world at large, the president also maintains a forward-looking attitude toward Taiwan's relations with China, hoping to transform suspicion and resentment into trust and friendship.
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