Chen Chen

Background

Chen was born in 1941 in Heishan, Liaoning.

Education

In 1967, he graduated from Beijing Agricultural University and started to work as technician in a chemical factory in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, and later on promoted to be factory director.

Career

He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1966. In 1981, Chen started to work for the government as the Director of Qiqihar City Economic Planning Committee. In 1983, he become the mayor of Qiqihar and in 1984 he was appointed deputy secretary of the CPC provincial committee and Director of Commission for Restructuring the Economy of Heilongjiang Province.

In 1987, he became the vice governor of Heilongjiang Province. In 1994, he was appointed to the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council as vice director, becoming its director in 1997. In 2008, due to the resumption of talks with Taiwan following the election of Ma Ying-jeou, Chen Yun-lin became the second head of ARATS. Though nominally a private body, ARATS is directly led by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Chen's new office at ARATS is in the same building complex as his old office at the Taiwan Affairs Office. The ARATS is the body directly responsible for negotiating with the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), its counterpart in Taiwan, which is correspondingly directly led by the Mainland Affairs Council of the Executive Yuan. On November 4, 2008, Chen met with his Taiwanese counterpart at the Second Chen-Chiang summit.

Chiang Pin-kung, head of Taiwan's SEF. It was the first ever meeting between ARATS and SEF leaders in Taiwan. The meeting lasted from November 3 to 7 in Taipei. The 5-day visit was the highest level meeting between the KMT and the CPC in six decades.

Another visit to Taiwan was followed on December 21, 2009. This controversial visit triggered an important social movement called the Wild Strawberry student movement.

Achievements

• He attained the rank of major general in September 1988, lieutenant general in July 1995, and general in 2002.

Politics

In a lengthy public career, Chen served variously as the vice chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the president and the Party chief of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and party chief of Tibet Autonomous Region and Henan province. Born in Kangping, Liaoning Province, Chen graduated from Inner Mongolia Normal College, majoring political education. After graduation in 1964, Chen was assigned to work in the CPC party school in Hulunbuir of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Membership

[Chinese Academy of Social Sciences]

In 1989, Chen became a standing member of CPC Inner Mongolia committee, and the secretary of commission for higher institutions of the autonomous region. Chen was a member of 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China.