Apollo Chen, also known as Chen Shei-saint (; born 28 September 1957) is a Taiwanese journalist and politician.

Education and early career

Born in Taipei, Chen attended

Jianguo High School Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School (, CKHS; formerly Chien Kuo from the Wade-Giles transliteration) is a public high school for boys located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. The school was established in 1898 during the early years of ...

, and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imper ...

, followed by a master's in

Chinese studies Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the e ...

Tamkang University Tamkang University (TKU; ) is a private university in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1950 as a junior college of English literature. Today it is a comprehensive university with 11 colleges that serves nearly 25,00 ...

. He wrote for the '' China Daily News'' and ''

China Times The ''China Times'' (, abbr. ) is a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Taiwan. It is one of the four largest newspapers in Taiwan. It is owned by Want Want, which also owns TV stations CTV and CTiTV. History The ''China Times'' was f ...

'' and was also a television anchor on

Asia Television Asia Television Limited (, also known as ATV) is a digital media and broadcasting company in Hong Kong. Established as the first television service in Hong Kong as Rediffusion Television () on 29 May 1957, it shifted to terrestrial televi ...

Political career

Chen served on the

Taipei City Council Taipei City Council () is the city council of Taipei, Taiwan. One of the largest local councils in Taiwan, the city council is currently composed of 63 councillors, all elected lately in the 2018 Taiwanese local elections. Composition ...

from 1991 to 1998. His first stint in the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel ...

began the next year and lasted until 2005. Chen was the spokesman of

Lien Chan Lien Chan (; born 27 August 1936) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1990 to 1993, Premier of the Republic of China from 1993 to 1997, Vice President of the Republic of China from 1996 to ...

's 2000 presidential campaign. In between legislative stints, he was the director of the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau. Chen, backed by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

, ran for the legislature again in the Taoyuan County by-election of 2010, losing to

Huang Jen-shu Huang or Hwang may refer to: Location * Huang County, former county in Shandong, China, current Longkou City * Yellow River, or Huang River, in China * Huangshan, mountain range in Anhui, China * Huang (state), state in ancient China. * Hwan ...

by approximately 3,000 votes. He returned to the legislature in 2012. In 2014, Chen was suspended from the Kuomintang for casting a vote against the Land Administration Agent Act. However, the censure did not prevent him from running for reelection in 2016, which he won. It was initially reported that Chen had defeated by 390 votes. A recount by the Taoyuan District Court revealed that Chen had won by 389 votes.

2016 KMT chairmanship election

His party's presidential candidate,

Eric Chu Eric Chu Li-luan (; born on 7 June 1961) is a Taiwanese politician. He was born into a political family with strong Kuomintang (KMT) ties, and served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China, under Premier Wu Den-yih. Prior to this, Chu served ...

, was not successful and subsequently resigned the KMT chairmanship. Chen declared his interest in the position a few days after Chu's resignation was finalized. On 22 February, Chen submitted a petition of 24,179 signatures to the party committee responsible for overseeing elections. The party confirmed 10,710 of those signatures, validating his candidacy. Chen finished fourth in the election, which was won by

Hung Hsiu-chu Hung Hsiu-chu (; born 7 April 1948) is a Taiwanese politician. As a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), she has served the party as a Deputy Chairperson and Deputy Secretary-General. Hung was first elected to the legislature in 1990, and was the V ...

2018 Taoyuan mayor election

In March 2018, the Kuomintang announced that Chen had defeated

Lu Ming-che Lu Ming-che (; born 4 December 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. Education Lu attended Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, then studied business administration at National Chengchi University before pursuing a master's degree in the subject a ...

and in a primary held to decide the party's candidate in the Taoyuan mayoral election. Taoyuan_Map

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Apollo 1957 births Living people Taoyuan City Members of the Legislative Yuan Taipei Members of the Legislative Yuan Kuomintang Members of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan National Taiwan Normal University alumni Tamkang University alumni Taiwanese journalists Members of the 4th Legislative Yuan Members of the 5th Legislative Yuan Members of the 8th Legislative Yuan Members of the 9th Legislative Yuan Taipei City Councilors