Eric Chu

Eric Li-luan Chu (; born on 7 June 1961) is a Taiwanese politician, statistician, and academic who is currently the chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT).

Born into a political family with strong ties to the Kuomintang, Chu graduated from National Taiwan University and earned a master's degree and his doctorate from New York University. He served as a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2001, and as the magistrate of Taoyuan County from 2001 to 2009. From 2009 to 2010, he served as the vice premier under Premier Wu Den-yih. He was elected as the first mayor of the newly established city of New Taipei on 27 November 2010.

On 17 January 2015, he was elected unopposed as the chairman of the Kuomintang, succeeding Ma Ying-jeou. On 17 October 2015, he was chosen as KMT candidate for the 2016 presidential election replacing incumbent candidate Hung Hsiu-chu. Chu was defeated by his opponent Tsai Ing-wen, and subsequently resigned his post as KMT chairman. As a result of the 2021 Kuomintang chairmanship election, he returned to his former post as chairman of the party.

Early life and education

Chu was born in Bade City, Taoyuan County, Taiwan.The Mayor of Taoyuan County ― Eric Liluan Chu
." ''Taoyuan County''. Retrieved on 2 February 2009. His ancestral home is Yiwu, Zhejiang, and he is the son of a local Taoyuan County politician who served in the local legislature and also in the National Assembly. Chu's mother is from Daxi Township. Chu is married to Kao Wan-ching (). His father-in-law, Kao Yu-jen, is former speaker of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, chairman of Twinhead International Corp and founder of FiberLogic Communications.

In 1983, Chu graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in management. After completing compulsory military service in the Republic of China Armed Forces, he then pursued graduate studies in the United States at New York University (NYU), where he earned a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in finance in 1987 and a Ph.D. in accounting and applied statistics in 1991 from the New York University Stern School of Business. As a graduate student at NYU, Chu received a scholarship for further study and met his wife, Kao Wan-ching. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Market-Based Accounting Research: An International Comparison and New Evidence," and was supervised by Joshua Ronen.

Academic career

After obtaining his doctorate, Chu taught as an assistant professor at the City University of New York before returning to teach in Taiwan in 1992. He initially taught as an associate professor in accounting at National Taiwan University and was promoted to a tenured professor in 1997.

Early political career

He ran in the Republic of China legislative election held on 5 December 1998, was elected as a Kuomintang legislator, and took office on 1 February 1999. During his office term, he focused on financial and economic issues of Taiwan.

In 2000, he was appointed Chairman of the Budgetary Committee and the Finance Committee of the Legislative Yuan. He served in these positions for one year until 2001.

Taoyuan County magistrate

2001 Taoyuan County magistrate election

Chu won the 2001 Taoyuan County Magistrate election held on 1 December 2001 as a member of then-opposition Kuomintang, defeating Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Perng Shaw-jiin.

2005 Taoyuan County magistrate election

Chu ran for re-election in the 2005 Republic of China local election on 3 December 2005 and defeated DPP challenger Cheng Pao-ching, CEO of Taiwan Salt Company. He then took office for his second term as magistrate on 20 December 2005.

Kuomintang Vice Chairmanship

During his second term as Magistrate of Taoyuan County, Chu concurrently served as the Vice Chairman of Kuomintang from November 2008 until October 2009.

ROC Vice Premiership

Vice Premier appointment

Chu was tapped by President Ma Ying-jeou to be the Vice Premier to Wu Den-yih on 7 September 2009, in a reshuffling of the Executive Yuan due to the slow disaster response to Typhoon Morakot. Chu's position as Magistrate of Taoyuan County was succeeded by Deputy Magistrate Huang Min-kon. At the age of 48, Chu was the youngest Vice Premier in ROC history.

Vice Premier resignation

On 13 May 2010, Chu submitted his resignation to Premier Wu to run for mayor of the newly created New Taipei City, the successor of Taipei County. Financial Supervisory Commission chairperson Sean Chen was tapped to succeed Chu as deputy premier.

New Taipei City Mayoralty

2010 New Taipei City mayoralty election

In May 2010 before the New Taipei City Mayor election, Chu outlined his vision for the city. Noting the gap between New Taipei and Taipei, Chu promised to transform New Taipei if he was elected, where completing the mass rapid transit network in New Taipei will be his top priority. Chu defeated DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on 27 November 2010, to become the first mayor of New Taipei on 25 December 2010. He named Hou Yu-ih, Hsu Chih-chien, and Lee Shih-chuan deputy mayors of the city. Hou and Chen Shen-hsien shared the deputy mayoral post soon after Lee was named Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan on 25 February 2014 and Hsu had stepped down on 30 June 2014 due to health concerns.

Wikileaks

The content of some of Chu's conversations with Stephen Young of the American Institute in Taiwan was included in US diplomatic cables that were leaked in 2011. Chu claims that those cables do not accurately reflect the content of his conversations with Young.

Taiwanese fisherman shooting incident

The '' Guang Da Xing No. 28'' was fishing in disputed water in the South China Sea on 9 May 2013 when the Philippine Coast Guard opened fire on the Taiwanese fishing boat. Chu condemned the shooting and said that he would suspend all of the exchanges between New Taipei City and the Philippines until the Philippine government apologized for the incident, compensated the victim's family and prosecuted the perpetrators.

2014 New Taipei City mayoralty election

On 29 November 2014, Chu won the New Taipei City mayoralty election, defeating his opponent Yu Shyi-kun of the Democratic Progressive Party. He had been expected to win a landslide victory, but he won by slightly more than 1% of the vote total. His second mayoral term started on 25 December 2014.

Kuomintang chairmanship (2014–2016)

On 17 January 2015, Chu ran unopposed in the KMT chairmanship election. He was the only candidate to have registered and paid the NT$2 million registration fee. He succeeded Ma Ying-jeou, who had resigned on 3 December 2014 to take responsibility for KMT losses in the ROC local election on 29 November 2014.

Prior to the election, Chu said he had not yet decided on meeting with Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping after being elected as KMT chairman. Furthermore, he said that "Cross-strait relations must stick to the current peaceful, open and mutually beneficial path, no matter which party is in power...but the economic benefits brought about by cross-strait development must not only go to a few vested groups...(and) We will pay special attention to an equitable distribution of wealth." On 4 May 2015, Chu met with Xi Jinping in Beijing.

During his first term as party chair, Chu also acknowledged that the KMT accumulated much of its wealth illegally, and that these assets should be returned to the nation. In 2000 Chu claimed that these assets total US$3.15 billion; they include 146 plots of land, many in prime locations, as well as 157 houses and buildings. the majority of which were seized from Japanese and Taiwanese in 1945 and subsequently treated as belonging to the party, not the nation. After Chu announced his candidacy for KMT Chairmanship, however, he claimed not to know what assets are held or what their value might be.

2016 Taiwanese presidential elections

Though Chu had repeatedly refused to run in the 2016 presidential election, he was chosen to be the preferred candidate over the incumbent Hung Hsiu-chu in a KMT congress held at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on 17 October 2015. 812 of 891 KMT members in attendance voted to replace Hung with Chu. In a post-election speech, Chu apologized to Hung for her dismissal, but continued by saying the KMT had reached a crucial point where it needed to adjust its pace and start anew. He also apologized to New Taipei residents for breaking his promise to serve as mayor until his term ended. The party's decision to replace Hung had been made prior to the meeting, and Chu had apologized to Hung multiple times for the way the party had treated her.

On 19 October 2015, Chu announced his intention to temporarily leave mayoral duties to Deputy Mayor Hou Yu-ih starting the next day. Chu planned to take three months of leave, to focus on his presidential campaign. The monthly salary of NT$190,500 Chu would have collected during this time was to be donated to the New Taipei City treasury.

Chu suffered an enormous defeat in the 2016 presidential election, losing 18 of 23 counties. He resigned the KMT chairmanship, and returned to the New Taipei City mayorship on 18 January 2016.

Kuomintang chairmanship (2021–)

Chu announced that he would run in the 2021 Kuomintang chairmanship election on 2 August 2021. He finished first of four candidates on 25 September 2021, and took office on 5 October 2021.

Notes

References

External links

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New Taipei Mayor
– ''New Taipei Government Portal''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chu, Eric
1961 births
Living people
Kuomintang Members of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan
Magistrates of Taoyuan County
Mayors of New Taipei
Members of the Kuomintang
Members of the 4th Legislative Yuan
National Taiwan University alumni
People from Bade District
Vice premiers of the Republic of China on Taiwan
Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Taoyuan City
New York University Stern School of Business alumni
Taoyuan City Members of the Legislative Yuan
Kuomintang presidential nominees
Chairpersons of the Kuomintang
Intelligent Community Forum