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Eric Li-luan Chu[1] (Chinese: 朱立倫; pinyin: Zhū Lìlún; born on 7 June 1961) is a Taiwanese politician, statistician, and academic who has served as the chairman of the Kuomintang since 2021.[2]
Chu was born to a political family in Taoyuan and graduated from National Taiwan University. After earning his doctorate from New York University in 1991, he began an academic career as an accounting professor and entered politics as a member of the Legislative Yuan in 1999. He was the magistrate of Taoyuan County from 2001 to 2009. From 2009 to 2010, he served as the vice premier of the Republic of China under Wu Den-yih, then 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. [3] As a result of the 2021 Kuomintang chairmanship election, he returned to his former post as chairman of the party.
Chu was born on June 7, 1961, in Bade City, Taoyuan County.[4] His ancestral home is in Yiwu, Zhejiang.[5] His father, Chang-hsing (朱樟興; d. 2025),[6] was a local politician in Taoyuan County who served in the local legislature and in the National Assembly.[7] 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.[8] His father-in-law, Taiwanese politician and businessman Kao Yu-jen (高育仁), formerly served as a Kuomintang legislator.[7][9]
Chu attended Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, where he was classmates with Jiang Yi-huah and Lai Ching-te,[10] and originally studied science before switching to liberal arts in his second year.[11] After graduating in 1978,[12] he studied business administration as an undergraduate at National Taiwan University and received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1983. He then completed military service in the Republic of China Armed Forces and pursued doctoral studies in the United States at New York University, where he earned a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in finance in 1987 and his Ph.D. in accounting and applied statistics in 1991 from the New York University Stern School of Business.[13]
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.[14] Chu's doctoral dissertation, completed under accounting professor Joshua Ronen, was titled, "Market-Based Accounting Research: An International Comparison and New Evidence".[15] The thesis examined the rate of returns in the Taiwan Stock Exchange compared to those in U.S. markets.[15]
After receiving his doctorate, Chu worked as 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.[13] His expertise included accounting, financial analysis, and public policy.[16] In 1995, Chu was a visiting professor at Peking University.[17] He has continued to teach graduate accounting courses part-time at National Taiwan University since 2020.[18] In October 2020, Chu also taught accounting at Soochow University as its Yen Chia-kan Chair Professor.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21]
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.[22][23]
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.[24]
During his second term as Magistrate of Taoyuan County, Chu concurrently served as the Vice Chairman of Kuomintang from November 2008 until October 2009.[25]
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.[26][27] Chu's position as Magistrate of Taoyuan County was succeeded by Deputy Magistrate Huang Min-kon.[28] At the age of 48, Chu was the youngest Vice Premier in ROC history.[29]
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.[30] Financial Supervisory Commission chairperson Sean Chen was tapped to succeed Chu as deputy premier.[31]
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.[32][33] He named Hou Yu-ih, Hsu Chih-chien, and Lee Shih-chuan deputy mayors of the city.[34] 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.[35][36][37][38]
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.[39]
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.[40]
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,[41][42] but he won by slightly more than 1% of the vote total.[43] His second mayoral term started on 25 December 2014.[44]
On 17 January 2015, Chu ran unopposed in the KMT chairmanship election.[45] He was the only candidate to have registered and paid the NT$2 million registration fee.[46] 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.[47]
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.[48] 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."[49] On 4 May 2015, Chu met with Xi Jinping in Beijing.[50][51]
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.[52] In 2000 Chu claimed that these assets total US$3.15 billion;[53] 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.[54] After Chu announced his candidacy for KMT Chairmanship, however, he claimed not to know what assets are held or what their value might be.[55]
Though Chu had repeatedly refused to run in the 2016 presidential election,[56][57] 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.[58] 812 of 891 KMT members in attendance voted to replace Hung with Chu.[59] 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.[60][61] 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.[62][63]
On 19 October 2015, Chu announced his intention to temporarily leave mayoral duties to Deputy Mayor Hou Yu-ih starting the next day.[64] 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.[65]
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.[66][60][67]
Chu announced that he would run in the 2021 Kuomintang chairmanship election on 2 August 2021.[68][69] He finished first of four candidates on 25 September 2021,[70][71] and took office on 5 October 2021.[72][73]
Media related to Eric Chu at Wikimedia Commons
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