Background
The family postponed the registration of his birth in a local registry office till the beginning of 1951 as the child was very sick. That is why the official date of birth in his ID is February 18 , 1951 .
The family postponed the registration of his birth in a local registry office till the beginning of 1951 as the child was very sick. That is why the official date of birth in his ID is February 18 , 1951 .
Being a third-year student he passed a bar exam and became the youngest lawyer in Taiwan at that time.
At the end of 1979 in one of the biggest city in Southern Taiwan the clash between the authorities and demonstrators known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place. Many activists of the democratic movement were arrested and stood trial under martial law announced on the island those days . These events in Taiwan brought attention of the world community and stimulated further opposition movement . With support of his wife Chen Shui-bian joined the group of lawyers , defending the arrested during the Kaohsiung Incident in trial . That was how a young lawyer became interested in politics.
In 1981 he was elected deputy of the Taipei City Council . During the office he became widely known because of his sharp criticism of actions of authorities and fierce struggle with injustice .
In 1984 , the proponents of authoritarian regime sued an opposition magazine Penglai dao(Formosa) . Chen Shui-bian , the editor, was charged . After the bringing in a verdict , he resigned from his position of deputy and came back to Tainan County to propose his candidacy for the position of the head of Administration. Although Chen Shui-bian received a significant number of votes he lost the election because there was an “influence” on the voters from the leading party Kuomintang’s side .
In 1986 Chen Shui-bian was sentenced to an 8-month imprisonment . At the end of the year his wife Wu Shu-chen was elected member of the Legislative Yuan . When released in 1987, Chen Shui-bian joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , kept on being engaged in advocacy and became a parliamentary assistant of his wife.
In December 1989, he won a by-election to the Legislative Yuan of the 1st convocation . The slogan of his election campaign was “Justice , progress, safety”. He also was the first chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party faction in the Legislative Yuan. In December 1992 he was re-elected to the Legislative Yuan of the 2d convocation .
Mayor Chen Shui-bian wasn’t re-elected for the second term. At that time his proponents offered to nominate him for president.
On March 18 , 2000 Chen Shui-bian was elected President of the Republic of China . On May 20 , 2000 , the inauguration day , there was a peaceful delegation of power from one party to another . For the first time a politician , who wasn’t the member of the KMT, became the head of the state.
On March 20 , 2004 Chen Shui-bian won another presidential election .
Chen Shui-bian was supporting pluralism and a dialogue with people of other views , normalization of relations between Taiwan and China based on “friendly reconciliation, active cooperation and everlasting peace”.