Eric Li-luan Chu
Born to a political family, Chu graduated from National Taiwan University and earned his doctorate from New York University. After working as an accounting professor, he entered politics and served as a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2001, and as the magistrate of Taoyuan City from 2001 to 2009. From 2009 to 2010, he served as the vice premier under Wu Den-yih. He was elected as the first mayor of New Taipei in 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.
Early life and education
Chu was born on June 7, 1961, in
Bade District,
Taoyuan City.
[" The Mayor of Taoyuan County ― Eric Liluan Chu ." Taoyuan County. Retrieved on 2 February 2009.] His ancestral home is in
Yiwu,
Zhejiang.
His father, Chang-hsing (朱樟興; 2025),
was a local politician in Taoyuan County who served in the local legislature and in the National Assembly.
Chu's uncle, Lin Hsi-da, was a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who served as mayor of
Daxi Township; Chu's mother is also from Daxi.
His father-in-law, Taiwanese politician and businessman
Kao Yu-jen (高育仁), formerly served as a Kuomintang legislator.
Chu attended Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, where he was classmates with Jiang Yi-huah and Lai Ching-te,
As a graduate student at NYU, Chu received a scholarship to complete his studies and met his wife, Kao Wan-ching (高婉倩), who was a doctoral student at Columbia University studying mass communications.
Academic career
After receiving his doctorate, Chu was an assistant professor at the City University of New York from 1990 to 1992, then returned to Taiwan and became an associate professor (1992–1997) and then full professor (1997–2001) of accounting at National Taiwan University.
His expertise included accounting, financial analysis, and
public policy.
In 1995, Chu was a visiting professor at Peking University.
He has continued to teach graduate accounting courses part-time at National Taiwan University since 2020.
In October 2020, Chu also taught accounting at Soochow University as its Yen Chia-kan Chair Professor.
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 City, 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.
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.
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 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.
[ Republished as: ] He finished first of four candidates on 25 September 2021,
and took office on 5 October 2021.
Selected publications
Notes
External links
