Chen Ding-nan

Chen Ding-nan (29 September 1943 – 5 November 2006), sometimes transliterated Chen Ting-nan or referred to as David Chen, was a Taiwanese politician, lawyer, and environmentalist who served as Minister of Justice and was known as a leader of the country's anti-nuclear movement. Due to the 9–13 July 2002 state visit to the United States of America Chen became the first Taiwan government official since 1979 (when the United States cut its official diplomatic relations with Taiwan) to have been invited into the White House.

In 1966, Chen obtained an undergraduate degree in law from the National Taiwan University. Consecutively, he fulfilled his military duty and then began a fourteen-year career in business, starting as a salesperson and then quickly becoming general manager and running various businesses before beginning an official political career.

The Lin family massacre [zh] (see Lin Yi-hsiung § Lin Family Massacre) on 28 February 1980 reportedly was a life-changing event for Chen and made him give up his business career and enter into politics. Reportedly, the massacre was the main reason for this career change. At the time of the Kaohsiung Incident (late 1979), Chen was still running the business of a successful shoe exporter. Even though Chen held a graduate degree in law, he never took the exam for lawyer or judge, reportedly because he witnessed dark sides during his military service as a martial judge. The outbreak of the massacre changed his mind, as it forced him to face the injustice in Taiwan's society. It has been claimed that Chen formulated his decision to give up his businesses as follows:

At that time, I told myself: Taiwan's society has become like this, what is the meaning of making a larger fortune? (Chinese: 「當時我告訴自己，台灣的社會已經變成這樣，賺再多錢有什麼意思？」)

— Chen Ding-Nan, after the Lin Family Massacre, 宜蘭經驗 陳定南從政傳奇

Chen first got involved with politics due to connections with the Tangwai movement. His twenty-five-year political career officially started in 1981. By the end of this year, he was supported by the Tangwai movement and was elected magistrate of Yilan County as an independent party candidate with fifty-two percent of the votes, beating the Kuomintang candidate by a gap of 7000 votes. Thus Chen became the first non-KMT magistrate of Yilan County. Chen would hold the position for two terms (being re-elected with seventy percent of the votes), until 1989.

In 1993 he joined the Democratic Progressive Party so as to run for the provincial governor elections in 1994, but lost the elections in second position.
          Cf.: § 1994 provincial governor elections.

A further career highlight includes serving three successive terms as a legislator for the Legislative Yuan, starting with being elected in the 1989 elections. During one of the re-elections periods, one of the supporting slogans was reportedly "Support Chen Ding-Nan, Stir Taiwan Province" (Chinese: 支持陳定南，轟動台灣省！). After his second term (commencing on 1 February 1993) and his third term (commencing in 1996), he renewed his term of office for a fourth administration (commencing on 1 February 1999) but left the post early on 20 May 2000 to take up his ministerial appointment.