Biography
The son of former Vice President Chen Tsyr-shiou, he 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; Chen held the position from July 1970 to February 1972. He is married to Tsao Chin (曹倩)
Chen served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1988 to 1990, Minister of National Defense from 1990 to 1993, and President of the Control Yuan from 1993 to 1995. He resigned his post, left the Kuomintang, and declared his candidacy for the presidency in September 1995 to express his open criticism of Lee Teng-hui's Mainland policy.
Lin Yang-kang originally considered Chen as his vice-presidential running-mate in the ROC presidential election, 1996. However, Chen chose to run for president himself (with Wang Ching-feng as his vice-presidential candidate). As Chen is a devoted convert to Tibetan Buddhism (he is ethnically Han), he his campaign tour of the island featured a strong spiritual theme, projecting 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 four candidates, Chen announced that he would retire from 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, meeting once with President Jiang Zemin.
While he still considered the Kuomintang a "rotten party", 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. He stated that while it had done some embarrassing things, the Kuomintang also did some good to the country. Since 2002 Chen and his family have been investing and running various business in mainland China, Nepal and Macau.
Chen's last public appearance was in the Pan-Blue Coalition's protests shortly after the ROC presidential election, 2004. He showed his support for Lien Chan and James Soong.
Read more about this topic: Chen Li-an
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