Lien Chan

Young Lien Chan (left)

Lien Chan was born in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China as the only child of Taiwanese father Lien Chen-tung and Chinese mother Chao Lan-k'un (趙蘭坤). His paternal grandfather, Lien Heng, was the writer of The General History of Taiwan (臺灣通史), a book that is often cited for the quote, "Taiwan's sorrow is that it has no history." Lien earned a Bachelor's degree in political science from the National Taiwan University in 1957 and a Master of Arts in International Law and Diplomacy in 1961. He received a PhD in political science in 1965 from the University of Chicago and married former Miss Republic of China Fang Yu the same year.[2] Lien is also currently a Trustee Emeritus on the Board of Trustees to the University of Chicago.[3]

Lien held assistant professorships of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1966 to 1967 and the University of Connecticut from 1967 to 1968. He returned to Taiwan in 1968 to become visiting professor of political science at the National Taiwan University, serving as chairman of the Political Science Department and dean of the Graduate Institute of Political Science the following year.

His official positions included Ambassador to El Salvador (1975–1976), Minister of Communications and Transportation (1981–1987), Vice Premier (1987–1988), Foreign Minister (1988–1990) before becoming Governor of Taiwan Province (1990–1993).[4] In 1993 he was appointed Premier of the Republic of China. In 1996, Lee Teng-hui selected him as running mate in the presidential election. Lee and Lien won the election for the presidency and the vice-presidency respectively. Before becoming Chairman of the KMT, he was Vice Chairman (1993–2000) and a member of the Central Committee (1984–2000).

During his term in office, Lien was credited for having established National Health Insurance, which is the national health insurance policy for all citizens of the Republic of China. It ranks as one of the best national health plans in the world and modeled by other nations who seek to have a national health coverage for other citizens. He spearheaded the constructions of Cross-Island Highway (橫貫公路), a series of highways that connected the eastern side of the island to the western side of the island. Taiwan is dominated by the Central Mountain Range which cordons off the east from the west. In order to go to the eastern side from the western side, one had to circle the island to reach their destinations before the highways were constructed. After Lien constructed these highways, traffic back-and-forth between the east and west of the island was much more efficient. He also began the reconstruction to the Military dependents’ villages (眷村) which were temporary shelters designated for the military personnel and their families when the Kuomintang (KMT) first moved to Taiwan. There are over 879 of these Military dependents’ villages which housing nearly 100,000 households within. Most of this housing was temporary shelter and were constructed during the period between 1945 and 1950s to house the military personnel as the KMT retreated to Taiwan. Half a century later when it became clear that reunification with Mainland China under the terms of the Republic of China would not be possible, it became obvious that the housing for the military personnel would have to be reconstructed.

Throughout Lien’s term as Foreign Minister and through his premiership, about 30 countries had diplomatic relations with Republic of China (Taiwan), this was the highest number of diplomatic relations since Republic of China was expelled from the United Nations in 1972 and severed diplomatic relations with the United States in 1976. Lien also established diplomatic relations with Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Grenada, Belize, Republic of Guinea-Bissau and reestablished diplomatic relations with Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Nicaragua.

Lien also established the foundations for the Internet in Taiwan via research center established under the National Science Council (國家科學委員會). Further, he liberalize the telecommunications network which allowed for multiple players to compete and ushered in the mobile service era in the Telecommunications sector. He also revised and deregulated the regulation on cable television sector that allowing for multiple players in the television and cable sectors. These policies making Taiwan the most liberal area in Asia for Media.

For the purpose of developing Taiwan as an economic hub in the Asia-Pacific, Lien espoused a platform called the “Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center” because Taiwan has two natural deep water harbors, one is Keelung and second one is Kaohsiung, shipments from all over the world would transport and transfer in these harbors before heading to Japan, Korea, China or Southeast Asia. However, due to Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) “two state solution” (兩國論), a theory advocated for China and Taiwan to engage in a special "state to state relationship", Mainland China was deeply angered, therefore Taiwan became increasingly marginalized.

1996 Taiwan presidential election result
Presidential candidate	Vice presidential candidate	Party	Votes	%
Lee Teng-hui	Lien Chan	Kuomintang	5,813,699	54.0
Peng Ming-min	Frank Hsieh	Democratic Progressive Party	2,274,586	21.1
Lin Yang-kang	Hau Pei-tsun	Independent	1,603,790	14.9
Chen Li-an	Wang Ching-feng	Independent	1,074,044	9.9
Invalid/blank votes			117,160
Total			10,883,279	100

Lien took an active role as a representative of Lee Teng-hui in quasi-official diplomacy in the mid-1990s. One of the greatest moments of his career is his 1995 meeting with Václav Havel, in which Lien likened the democratic reforms of the Lee Teng-hui administration as being similar to the Velvet Revolution.

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	4,977,697	39.30%
	Independent	James Soong	Chang Chau-hsiung	4,664,972	36.84%
	Kuomintang	Lien Chan	Vincent Siew	2,925,513	23.10%
	Independent	Hsu Hsin-liang	Josephine Chu	79,429	0.63%
	New Party	Li Ao	Elmer Fung	16,782	0.13%
Total				12,786,671	82.69% voter turnout
Valid votes				12,664,393
Invalid votes				122,278

After the defeat of the KMT in 2000, Lien assume the leadership of the KMT. As the Chairman of the KMT, Lien vowed to learn from his loss and remake the KMT party. He held forums to discuss erasing the KMT's image as a corrupt institution and Lien promised to give up property seized by the KMT after the Japanese exodus.

The Pan-Blue reunited in the election of 2004 with Lien and Soong running on a combined ticket against DPP’s Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu. Chen Shui-bian was the incumbent and was trailing 13% behind in the polls before ballot day. Then, out of nowhere came two bullets, one barely grazing Chen’s belly and another one grazing Annette Lu’s knee. Immediately the DPP-control government suspended all election activities and prohibited all servicemen, policeman and security workers to return home to vote. The servicemen are typically Pan-Blue voters and number of service men affected was roughly 350,000. The DPP Secretary General of the President’s office Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) immediately came out on media to announce that there was an assassination attempt on the DPP candidates Chen and Lu and accused the KMT of collaborating with the Chinese Communists Party to assassinate Taiwan’s President. Lien lost that election by 0.228% margin, a mere 29,518 votes out of a total of 12,914,422 (12 million nine hundred and fourteen thousand four hundred and twenty two) ballots cast. Both Chen and Lu were released from the hospital on the same day and went to vote on the next day. Neither one had life-threatening injury nor did they lose consciousness or had a surgery. Rather, alleged assassin Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄) was killed and his body was found ten days later ditched into a pond near where he lives. His body was formally dressed in suite and tie and entangled in a fishnet.

This incident sparked mass riots and controversy because it was believed that the shooting was staged in order to gain sympathy votes for Chen and Lu who won by a sliver of a margin. Hence the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee was established.

On 31 Jan 2008, the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee concluded its investigation into the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), and raised questions about whether the shooting was a staged event. "We have compared all of the evidence and clues through interviews and reconstructed the scene. Although the truth of the event remains unclear, the "truth" that government publicized and the evidence don't match," committee convener Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told reporters. The report also suggested that Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), whom the authorities identified as the shooter, was murdered instead of committing suicide when he was found dead 10 days after the incident.

 Summary of the 20 March 2004 Taiwan presidential election results

Candidates and nominating parties	Votes	%		Votes before recount
Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu Democratic Progressive Party(Pan-Green Coalition)	6,446,900	50.11		6,471,970
Lien Chan and James Soong Kuomintang / People First Party (Pan-Blue Coalition)	6,423,906	49.89		6,442,452
Total (turnout 80.28 %)	12,914,422	100.0
Invalid votes	337,297
Votes cast	13,251,719

In 2005, after Ma was elected as KMT chairman to succeed Lien, the KMT Central Committee offered the title of "Chairman Emeritus" (Honorary Chairman) to Lien.

In December 2010, Lien was awarded the Confucius Peace Prize in China, which was instituted as a reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo. Lien's office said to the Taipei Times: “We’ve never heard of such an award and of course Mr Lien has no plans to accept it.” [5]

Lien Chan at the 2008 APEC Summit in Peru with Dmitry Medvedev.

Lien was selected by President Ma Ying-jeou as special envoy to represent the Republic of China (participating as Chinese Taipei) at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2008–2012.

While at APEC, Lien also met with PRC leader Hu Jintao, the highest level of official exchange between the Mainland and Taiwan on the international stage at that time.[14]

His family name is Lien; his given name is Chan. "Chan" means "battles" and his full name literally means "successive battles." The name originated from Lien Heng who wrote to his pregnant daughter-in-law in Xi'an:

"China and Japan will battle inevitably. If the child born is a boy, name him Lien Chan, signifying that the strength coming from within oneself will never diminish and can overcome the enemies and be victorious. It also has the meaning of reviving the former nation, reorganizing the light and hope of our homeland." (『中、日必將一戰，如生男則名連戰，寓有自強不息，克敵制勝，有復興故國、重整家園光明希望。』)

Lien Chan was descended from a family of literati. His family arrived in Taiwan during the Emperor Kang Xi era and had settled in Tainan residing in an area called Ma Bing Ying; which was the former training ground of the Zheng Cheng Gung forces in his campaign against the Dutch. Lien‘s family harvested sugar on their plantations for generations. Lien’s grandmother’s family were also wealthy merchants who traded camphor and sugar. Lien ‘s mother, Chao Lan Kun came from a wealthy Shenyang family, and is credited for having preserve the family wealth throughout the turbulent times of post-Japanese colonization.

Lien is married to Lien Fang Yu. They have two sons, Sean Lien and Lien Sheng-Wu (連勝武), and two daughters, Lien Hui-Hsin (連惠心) and Lien Yong-Hsin (連詠心).[15]

• Kuomintang
• Politics of the Republic of China
• Elections in the Republic of China
• History of the Republic of China
• Administrative divisions of the Republic of China
• Political status of Taiwan

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• Official Kuomintang website