Lien Chan

Lien Chan (born 27 August 1936) is a Taiwanese politician.

Most of this housing was temporary shelter and were constructed during the period between 1945 and 1950s to house the military personnel as the KMT retreated to Taiwan.

Half a century later when it became clear that reunification with Mainland China under the terms of the Republic of China would not be possible, it became obvious that the housing for the military personnel would have to be reconstructed.

Lien earned a Bachelor's degree in political science from the National Taiwan University in 1957 and a Master of Arts in International Law and Diplomacy in 1961.

He received a PhD in political science in 1965 from the University of Chicago and married former Miss Republic of China Fang Yu the same year.

Lien is also currently a Trustee Emeritus on the Board of Trustees to the University of Chicago.

Lien held assistant professorships of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1966 to 1967 and the University of Connecticut from 1967 to 1968.

He returned to Taiwan in 1968 to become visiting professor of political science at the National Taiwan University, serving as chairman of the Political Science Department and dean of the Graduate Institute of Political Science the following year.

Throughout Lien's term as Foreign Minister and through his premiership, about 30 countries had diplomatic relations with Republic of China (Taiwan), this was the highest number of diplomatic relations since Republic of China was expelled from the United Nations in 1972 and severed diplomatic relations with the United States in 1976.

Lien also established diplomatic relations with Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Grenada, Belize, Republic of Guinea-Bissau and reestablished diplomatic relations with Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Nicaragua.

Lien also established the foundations for the Internet in Taiwan via research centers established under the National Science Council (國家科學委員會).

Furthermore, he liberalized the telecommunications network which allowed for multiple players to compete and ushered in the mobile service era in the Telecommunications sector.

He also revised and deregulated the regulation on cable television sector that allowed for multiple players in the television and cable sectors.

These policies made Taiwan the most liberal area in Asia for Media.

For the purpose of developing Taiwan as an economic hub in the Asia-Pacific, Lien espoused a platform called the “Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center” because Taiwan has two natural deep water harbors, one is Keelung and second one is Kaohsiung, shipments from all over the world would transport and transfer in these harbors before heading to Japan, Korea, China or Southeast Asia.

However, due to Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) “two state solution” (兩國論), a theory advocated for China and Taiwan to engage in a special "state to state relationship", Mainland China was deeply angered, therefore Taiwan became increasingly marginalized.

His official positions included Ambassador to El Salvador (1975–1976), Minister of Transportation and Communications (1981–1987), Vice Premier (1987–1988), Foreign Minister (1988–1990) before becoming Governor of Taiwan Province (1990–1993).

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 2000, and was the Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 2000 to 2005, apart from various ministerial posts he had also held.

Lien took an active role as a representative of Lee Teng-hui in quasi-official diplomacy in the mid-1990s.

In 1993 he was appointed Premier of the Republic of China.

Before becoming Chairman of the KMT, he was Vice Chairman (1993–2000) and a member of the Central Committee (1984–2000).

During his term in office, Lien was credited for having established National Health Insurance, which is the national health insurance policy for all citizens of the Republic of China.

It ranks as one of the best national health plans in the world and modeled by other nations who seek to have a national health coverage for other citizens.

He spearheaded the constructions of Cross-Island Highway (橫貫公路), a series of highways that connected the eastern side of the island to the western side of the island.

Taiwan is dominated by the Central Mountain Range which cordons off the east from the west.

In order to go to the eastern side from the western side, one had to circle the island to reach their destinations before the highways were constructed.

After Lien constructed these highways, traffic back-and-forth between the east and west of the island was much more efficient.

He also began the reconstruction to the Military dependents’ villages (眷村) which were temporary shelters designated for the military personnel and their families when the Kuomintang (KMT) first moved to Taiwan.

There are over 879 of these Military dependents’ villages which housing nearly 100,000 households within.

One of the greatest moments of his career is his 1995 meeting with Václav Havel, in which Lien likened the democratic reforms of the Lee Teng-hui administration as being similar to the Velvet Revolution.

In 1996, Lee Teng-hui selected him as running mate in the presidential election.

Lee and Lien won the election for the presidency and the vice-presidency respectively.

Lien ran for the President of the Republic of China on behalf of the Kuomintang twice in 2000 and 2004, but both lost to Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.

After the defeat of the KMT in 2000, Lien assume the leadership of the KMT.

As the Chairman of the KMT, Lien vowed to learn from his loss and remake the KMT party.

He held forums to discuss erasing the KMT's image as a corrupt institution and Lien promised to give up property seized by the KMT after the Japanese exodus.

Upon his retirement as KMT Chairman in August 2005, he was given the title Honorary Chairman of KMT.

He is highly credited after holding a groundbreaking visit to Mainland China in his capacity as the Chairman of the Kuomintang to meet with the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao on 29 April 2005, the first meeting between the two party leaders after the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949, which subsequently helped thaw the long-stalled cross-strait relations.

Lien Chan was born at Jenkins and Robertson Hospital in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China as the only child of Taiwanese father Lien Chen-tung and Chinese mother Chao Lan-k'un (趙蘭坤).

His paternal grandfather, Lien Heng, was the writer of The General History of Taiwan (臺灣通史), a book that is often cited for the quote, "Taiwan's sorrow is that it has no history."