Chen Chu

Chen Chu ( Chinese  陳菊 , Pinyin Chén Jú ; born June 10, 1950 in Sansing Township , Ilan County , Taiwan ) is a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and has been Secretary General of the Taiwanese Presidential Office since April 2018. She previously served as Kaohsiung City Mayor from 2006 to 2018 . In the 1970s and 80s she was involved in the Taiwanese democracy movement . She was one of the dissidents (the "Eight of Kaohsiung") who were sentenced to years in prison following the " Kaohsiung Incident " in 1979.

Education

Chen Chu studied at Shi-Hsin University ( Taipei ) and Sun-Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, where she earned a master's degree in public affairs .

Political career

Democracy movement

Chen Chu was the secretary of Kuo Yu-hsin , one of the most prominent members of the Taiwanese Dangwai movement , in the 1970s . In 1979 she worked as an editor in founding the opposition magazine "Formosa" in 1979 and was briefly director of the magazine's Kaohsiung bureau. Following the Kaohsiung incident on December 10, 1979, Chen Chu was arrested along with other opposition activists (the "Eight of Kaohsiung") and sentenced to 12 years in prison in March 1980 for "public disturbance". After six years and two months, she was released from prison in 1986 and joined the opposition party DPP, which was founded in the same year.

Public offices

From 1994 to 1998, she headed the Taipei City Welfare Office during the tenure of Mayor Chen Shui-bian, and the Kaohsiung City Welfare Office from 1998 to 2000. After Chen Shui-bian was elected President of the Republic of China, Chen Chu headed the Ministry of Labor from 2000 to 2005.

After the resignation of the DPP party leader Tsai Ing-wen following her defeat in the 2012 presidential election , Chen Chu took over from 01.03. provisionally the party chairmanship until May 30, 2012 until the election of the new chairman. On April 23, 2018, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen appointed Chen Chu as secretary general of the presidential office.

Mayor of Kaohsiung

On December 9, 2006, Chen was elected Kaohsiung's first female mayor by just 1,120 votes ahead of Huang Jun-ying ( Kuomintang ). The election was challenged by Huang and the result was only confirmed in the second instance on November 16, 2007.

Chen Chu devoted himself to the urban transportation system, public works and environmental protection. During her tenure, the Kaohsiung subway went into operation in 2008.

In 2009, Chen traveled to the People's Republic of China to promote the upcoming 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. Chen met the mayors of Beijing and Shanghai and the chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee. The games, which took place from July 16 to 26 and for which the World Games Stadium was built in the Zuoying district , were a great success and were even called "the best world games of all" by Ron Froehlich , Chairman of the International Association for World Games Times "praised.

On November 27, 2010, Chen was confirmed in office in the third ballot with 52% of the vote. She is the first mayor of Kaohsiung Extended City (a result of the merger of the old city area with the former Kaohsiung County ).

In the aftermath of Typhoon Fanapi on September 19, 2010, Chen Chu was criticized by the opposition for taking a nap in her home while parts of Kaohsiung were under water. Chen apologized with tears and said that she just wanted to rest and change her soaked clothes, but otherwise carefully followed the development of the typhoon. In the aftermath of a major gas explosion in Kaohsiung on July 31, 2014 that killed several people, MPs from the opposition Kuomintang party filed a lawsuit against Chen for "negligence." In Chen's second term of office, the construction and opening of the international trade fair and exhibition center Asia New Bay Area at Kaohsiung Harbor (2011-2014) fell.

In the mayoral election on November 29, 2014, Chen was re-elected, beating Kuomintang candidate Yang Chiu-hsing with 68.09% of the vote. After her appointment as general secretary of the presidential office in April 2018, she relinquished her mayorship to Hsu Li-Ming as executive mayor seven months before the end of her regular term.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chen Chu takes up post as Presidential Office secretary-general , Focus Taiwan News Channel, April 23, 2018
2. ^ Court ruling keeps Kaohsiung mayor in office, Xinhua News Agency , November 17, 2007
3. ^ Kaohsiung officials bask in Games' glory, revenues The Taipei Times , July 30, 2009
4. ↑ Sport beats out politics ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Straits Times (Singapore), July 30, 2009  
5. ^ Chen Chu apologizes for absence The Taipei Times , September 30, 2010
6. ↑ KMT sues Kaohsiung mayor over deadly gas blasts , Focus Taiwan, August 27, 2014
7. ↑ Chen Chu wins 3rd term as Kaohsiung mayor , Focus Taiwan, November 29, 2014
8. ↑ Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Hsu Li-Ming named acting mayor , Focus Taiwan News Channel on April 17, 2018

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Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Chen is the family name here, Chu is the first name.