Chen Li-an

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.

Chen Li-an (traditional Chinese: 陳履安; simplified Chinese: 陈履安; pinyin: Chén Lǚ'ān; born 22 June 1937 in Qingtian, Zhejiang), sometimes spelled Chen Lu-an, is an electrical engineer, mathematician and former Taiwanese politician.

Biography

Son of former Vice President Chen Tsyr-shiou and earned his masters' and Ph.D. in mathematics from New York University. He had a close friendship with Wang Yung-ching, a respected businessman. Wang later appointed Chen the headmaster of the private Ming-chi Technology College, which Wang owned (July 1970 - February 1972).

He was the economic minister from 1988 to 1990, defense minister from 1990 to 1993, and the President of the Control Yuan from 1993 to 1995. He resigned his post, left the Kuomintang and declared his running for presidency in September 1995 to express his open criticisms of Lee Teng-hui's Mainland policy.

Lin Yang-kang originally considered Chen to be his vice-presidential running-mate in the ROC presidential election, 1996. However, Chen chose to run as president himself (with Wang Ching-feng as the vice-presidential candidate). As Chen is a devoted convert to Tibetan Buddhism (he is ethnically Han), he toured the island in a strong spiritual theme in his campaign, giving an image that some commented to be like an "ascetic monk".

After losing his bid in the presidential election with the lowest vote among the 4 candidates, Chen announced that he would retire from the politics. Later, as part of his efforts to promote Tibetan Buddhism, he founded the Hwa-yu Foundation (化育基金會), of which he serves as president and his eldest son, Chen Yu-ting (陳宇廷), serves as director. Chen also organized charities to financially assist ethnic minorities in mainland China and Nepal. From 1996 to 1998, he visited the People's Republic of China three times, including a visit with President Jiang Zemin.^{[citation needed]}

While he still considered the Kuomintang a "rotten party",^[1] Chen endorsed the KMT candidate Lien Chan in the ROC presidential election, 2000, believing that Lien was unlike the rest of the Kuomintang.

On January 6, 2001, Chen re-joined the Kuomintang, with his wife, Tsao Chin (曹倩). He stated that while it had done some embarrassing things, the Kuomintang also did some good to the country.^{[citation needed]} Since 2002 Chen and his family have been investing and running various business in mainland China, Nepal and Macau.^{[citation needed]}

Chen's last public appearance was in the Pan-Blue Coalition's protests shortly after the ROC presidential election, 2004. He showed his support towards Lien Chan and James Soong.

Family

His daughter, Chen Yu-hui, is a businesswoman (director of ABN AMRO) and wuxia novelist ("Duō qíng làng zǐ chī qíng xiá";多情浪子痴情侠).

See also

• Politics of the Republic of China
• Chen Yu-hui

References

1. ^ http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/20000229/20000229p1.html

Government offices
Preceded by Lee Ta-hai	ROC Minister of Economic Affairs 1988-1990	Succeeded by Vincent Siew
Preceded by Hau Pei-tsun	ROC Minister of National Defense 1990-1993	Succeeded by Sun Zhen
Preceded by Huang Tzuen-chiou	President of Control Yuan 1993-1995	Succeeded by Cheng Sui-Je

Persondata
Name	Chen, Li-an
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 June 1937
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death