Chen Shui-bian - Entry Into Politics

Entry Into Politics

Chen became involved in politics in 1980 when he defended the participants of the Kaohsiung Incident in a military court. While his client Huang Hsin-chieh (黃信介), the leading opposition dissident, and seven co-defendants, including his future Vice President Annette Lu, were found guilty, Chen came to be known for his forceful and colorful arguments. He has stated that it was during this period that he realized the unfairness of the political system in Taiwan and became politically active as a member of the Tangwai movement.

Chen won a seat in the Taipei City Council as a Tangwai candidate in 1981 and served until 1985. In 1984, he founded the pro-opposition Civil Servant Public Policy Research Association, which published a magazine called Neo-Formosa.

On January 12, 1985, Chen was sentenced to a year in prison for libel as a result of his editorship of Neo-Formosa, following the publication of an article critical of Elmer Fung, then a college philosophy professor who was later elected a Kuomintang (KMT) legislator. While appealing the sentence, he returned to Tainan to run for county magistrate in November 1985. Three days after losing the election, his wife, Wu Shu-chen was hit twice by a truck driven by Chang Jong-tsai (張榮財) as Chen and Wu were thanking their supporters. She was left paralyzed from the waist down. His supporters believed this was part of a government campaign to intimidate him, although another theory says it was a simple traffic accident. Chen writes in his autobiography that he harbors guilt towards his late father-in-law for this incident because of his failure to keep his promise that his involvement in politics would not harm his family and for ignoring repeated death threats from his opponents.

Chen lost his appeal in May 1986 and began serving eight months in the Tucheng Penitentiary (土城看守所) along with Huang Tien-fu (黃天福) and Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), two other defendants in the case. While he was in prison, his wife campaigned and was elected to the Legislative Yuan. Chen also reflects how the various visits his wife made to him in prison overwhelmed him as she often fell from the wheelchair with no one to assist her. Upon his release, Chen served as her legislative assistant and practiced law.

In 1989, Chen was elected to the Legislative Yuan and served as the executive director of the Democratic Progressive Party Congress. With the support of some KMT colleagues, Chen was also elected convener of the National Defense Committee. He was instrumental in laying out and moderating many of the DPP's positions on Taiwan independence, including the four ifs. He was reelected to another three year term in 1992, but resigned in two years to become mayor.