Annette Lu

Annette Lu
Lü Hsiu-lien
呂秀蓮
Lu giving a speech at the 228 Memorial Park in 2008.
Vice President of the Republic of China
In office
20 May 2000 – 20 May 2008
President Chen Shui-bian
Preceded by Lien Chan
Succeeded by Vincent Siew
Magistrate of Taoyuan County
In office
28 March 1997 – 20 May 2000
Preceded by Liu Pang-yu
Liau Pen-yang (acting)
Succeeded by Hsu Ying-shen (acting)
Eric Chu
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office
1 February 1993 – 31 January 1996
Constituency Taoyuan County constituency
Personal details
Born (1944-06-07) June 7, 1944
Tōen Town, Shinchiku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan (now Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan)
Nationality Taiwan
Political party Independent
Other political
affiliations		 Democratic Progressive Party (1990–2018)
Kuomintang (1974–1978)
Alma mater National Taiwan University
University of Illinois
Harvard University
Occupation Politician
Profession Lawyer
Annette Lu
Traditional Chinese 呂秀蓮
Simplified Chinese 吕秀莲

Annette Lu Hsiu-lien (Chinese: 呂秀蓮; pinyin: Lǚ Xiùlián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lū Siù-liân; born 7 June 1944) is a Taiwanese politician. A feminist active in the tangwai movement, she joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 1990, and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992. Subsequently, she served as Taoyuan County Magistrate between 1997 and 2000, and was the Vice President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008, under President Chen Shui-bian. Lu announced her intentions to run for the presidency on 6 March 2007, but withdrew to support eventual DPP nominee Frank Hsieh. Lu ran again in 2012, but withdrew for a second time, ceding the nomination to DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.[1] She left the Democratic Progressive Party in 2018, after losing the party's Taipei mayoral nomination to Pasuya Yao.

Early life

Lu was born in Tōen Town (now Taoyuan City), in northern Taiwan, during Japanese rule. She has one older brother and three older sisters.[2]

After graduating from Taipei First Girls' High School, Lu studied law at the National Taiwan University. Graduating in 1967, she went on to gain a Master of Laws from both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (in comparative law, 1971) and Harvard University (1978).

Rise in politics

During the 1970s, Lu established herself as a prominent feminist advocate in Taiwan, which included writing of New Feminism or Xin Nüxing Zhuyi (新女性主義). She renounced her KMT membership,[3] joined the Tangwai movement, and worked on the staff of Formosa Magazine. Lu then became increasingly active in the tang-wai, the opposition movement calling for democracy and an end to authoritarian rule.

In 1979 she delivered a 20-minute speech criticizing the government at an International Human Rights Day rally that later became known as the Kaohsiung Incident. Following this rally, virtually the entire leadership of Taiwan's democracy movement, including Lu, was imprisoned. She was tried, found guilty of violent sedition, and sentenced by a military court to 12 years in prison. She was named by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and, due to international pressure, coupled with the work of Ma Ying-jeou and Jerome A. Cohen, was released in 1985, after approximately five-and-a-half years in jail.[4][5]

Elected offices

Lu joined the Democratic Progressive Party in November 1990,[6] and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992.[7][8] In 1997, she won an election to be the Magistrate of Taoyuan,[9][10] a post she held until Chen Shui-bian selected her as his running mate in the 2000 presidential elections.

15 March 1997 Taoyuan County Magistrate Special By-Election Result[11]
No. Party Candidate Votes Percentage
1 DPPAnnette Lu324,07455.3%
2 KMTFang Li-hsiu216,32536.9%
3 New PartyLai Lai-kun45,5267.8%
Total594,52958.77% voter turnout

Novel

Lu completed her novel entitled These Three Women while in prison. To evade the surveillance of the detention facility, she wrote part of the novel on toilet paper[12] using a washbasin as a desk. In 2008, the novel was adapted into a screenplay for TV drama of the same name. The drama was broadcast on 24 November 2008 on the Chinese Television System.

Vice Presidency, 2000–2008

On 18 March 2000, Lu was elected vice president. She was awarded the World Peace Corps Mission's World Peace Prize in 2001.[13] Controversy erupted over this in Taiwan, with Lu's political opponents accusing her of vastly overstating the significance and value of that award. She was also the ROC's first elected vice president to adopt a Western first name. In her interview with TIME Asia Magazine, she said the KMT never thought they would transfer their regime to her on behalf of the freedom fighters.

Summary of the 18 March 2000 Taiwan presidential election results
Political affiliation Candidate Votes
President Vice President Total votes Percentage
Democratic Progressive Party Chen Shui-bian Annette Lu 4,977,737 39.3%
Independent James Soong Chang Chau-hsiung 4,664,932 36.8%
Kuomintang Lien Chan Vincent Siew 2,925,513 23.1%
Independent Hsu Hsin-liang Josephine Chu 79,429 0.63%
New Party Li Ao Elmer Fung 16,782 0.13%
Total12,786,67182.69% voter turnout
Valid votes12,664,393
Invalid votes122,278

Lu was a contender for the 2008 presidential election; she announced her candidacy on March 6 and faced Yu Shyi-Kun (former DPP chairman and executive premier), Frank Hsieh (former DPP chairman, former premier, former Kaohsiung mayor), and Su Tseng-Chang (former DPP chair, former premier) for the nomination. After receiving only 6.16% of the votes cast in the DPP primary, Lu withdrew from the race.[14][15]

Assassination attempt

On 19 March 2004, Lu was shot in the right kneecap during a campaign trip to Tainan. Chen was shot in the abdomen at the same event. Both survived the shooting and left Chi-mei Hospital on the same day. The Pan-Blue Coalition suggested that the shooting was not an assassination attempt but that it was staged to a self-inflicted wound in order to gain sympathy votes. The Chen/Lu ticket won the election on the following day with a 0.228% margin, a figure significant to those who related it to the assassination incident.

Later political career

Lu announced in March 2018 that she would contest the Democratic Progressive Party mayoral primary for Taipei.[16] Soon after the DPP nominated Pasuya Yao as its candidate, Lu left the party.[17][18]

Cross-strait relations

In terms of Cross-Strait relations with China, Lu has been more outspoken in favor of Taiwan independence than President Chen Shui-bian, and as such has been more heavily attacked than Chen both by the government of the People's Republic of China as well as by supporters of Chinese reunification. Her remarks have led state newspapers in mainland China to accuse her of provoking "animosity between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits".[19] PRC state media has also labeled Lu as "insane" and a "scum of the earth".

In 2010 Lu visited South Korea and advocated Taiwan's use of what she called "soft power," meaning peaceful economic and political development, as a model for the resolution of international conflicts.[20] In mid-April 2013 speaking at George Washington University, Lu called for the DPP to have a better understanding about Mainland China because Taiwan's future depends on the development on the mainland. She stated that cross-strait relations should be defined as not only a distant relative, but also a near neighbor. And she stressed that there should be no hatred nor war between Taiwan and Mainland China, and both side should pursue peaceful coexistence, industrial cooperation and cultural exchanges.[21]

Speaking at the founding ceremony of Anti-One China Principle Union in Taipei on 29 April 2013, Lu warned on silent annexation of Taiwan into China since the introduction of Anti-Secession Law in 2005 and the gradual erosion of Taiwan's sovereignty. However, she said Taiwan doesn't oppose that there is one China in the world, but Taiwan is not part of China. She criticized ROC President Ma Ying-jeou for making Taiwan becomes more and more dependent on China. She even reiterated her 1996 Consensus to oppose Kuomintang's 1992 Consensus in dealing with the PRC, in which she said Taiwan has been an independent sovereign country after the 1996 ROC presidential election.[22]

Indictment

On 21 September 2007, Vice President Lu was indicted on charges of corruption by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Taiwan. Lu faces charges of embezzlement and of using false receipts to write-off expenses totalling over US$165,000 from a special governmental account. Yu Shyi-Kun was also indicted on the same day and immediately resigned his chairmanship of the Democratic Progressive Party, he promised he would resign if indicted. That same day, DPP member and National Security Office Secretary-General Mark Chen was indicted on corruption charges.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-01. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  2. ↑ Ni, Ching-ching (30 May 2000). "A Sister's Rise and a Brother's Obsession". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "KMT: DPP heavyweights were once members". China Post. 3 March 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  4. ↑ Emma Batha (19 May 2000). "Taiwan's top woman". BBC News. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  5. ↑ Stockman, Farah (3 July 2012). "How a Harvard rivalry changed Taiwan". Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. ↑ Yeh, Su-ping; Liu, Kuan-lin (30 May 2018). "Former VP Lu says 'bye, bye' to DPP". Central News Agency. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  7. ↑ Gargan, Edward A. (4 July 1994). "Taipei Journal; A Feminist's Work Is Never Done". New York Times.
  8. ↑ Tang, Wen-hui Anna; Teng, Emma J. (May–June 2016). "Looking again at Taiwan's Lü Hsiu-lien: A female vice president or a feminist vice president?". Women's Studies International Forum. 56: 92–102. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2016.01.006. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  9. ↑ "Special election set for Taoyuan magistrate". Taiwan Today. February 1997. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  10. ↑ "Ruling Resumes". Taiwan Today. 1 May 2000. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  11. ↑ "DPP celebrates landslide victory in Taoyuan County election". Taiwan Info. Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 21 March 1997. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Troy Parfitt (2008). Notes from the Other China: Adventures in Asia. Algora Publishing. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-0-87586-584-3.
  13. ↑ Lu becomes first woman to win World Peace Prize TAIPEI TIMES. Monique Chu. [November 30, 2001]
  14. ↑ "VP quits race for Taiwan presidency", Al Jazeera, 7 May 2007.
  15. ↑ "Frank Hsieh Confirmed as DPP Standard Bearer", The China Post, 8 May 2007.
  16. ↑ Yeh, Su-ping; Hsu, Elizabeth (7 March 2018). "Former VP Annette Lu announces bid for Taipei mayoral seat". Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  17. ↑ Hsu, Stacy (1 June 2018). "Annette Lu bids DPP farewell after failed mayoral bid". Taipei Times. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  18. ↑ Wu, Jui-chi; Chang, S. C. (31 May 2018). "Ex-VP Lu says DPP no longer has anything to do with her". Central News Agency. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  19. ↑ "What Is Annette Lu Up To?", People's Daily, 4/17/00
  20. ↑ Soft power lets Taiwan overcome poverty, survive despotism: Lu, Taiwan News, 18 February 2010.
  21. ↑ "Ex-VP Lu slams DPP for overlooking China". The China Post. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  22. ↑ "Lu warns on 'silent annexation' by China - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  23. ↑ Jane Richards (22 September 2007). "Taiwan's Vice President, 2 Others Charged With Corruption". Asia/Pacific. The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 December 2011.

Bibliography

  • Lu, Hsiu-Lien; Esarey, Ashley (2014). My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman's Journey from Prison to Power. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99364-5. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
Government offices
Preceded by
Liau Pen-yang
Acting		 Magistrate of Taoyuan County
1997–2000		 Succeeded by
Hsu Ying-shen
Acting
Preceded by
Lien Chan		 Vice President of the ROC
2000–2008		 Succeeded by
Vincent Siew
Party political offices
Preceded by
Su Tseng-chang		 Chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (acting)
2005–2006		 Succeeded by
Yu Shyi-kun
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