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Annette Lu

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Annette Lu
Lu Hsiu-lien
呂秀蓮
Official portrait, 2005
8th Vice President of Taiwan
In office
20 May 2000 – 20 May 2008
PresidentChen Shui-bian
Preceded byLien Chan
Succeeded byVincent Siew
Chair of Democratic Progressive Party
Acting
8 December 2005 – 15 January 2006
Preceded bySu Tseng-chang
Succeeded byYu Shyi-kun
10th Magistrate of Taoyuan
In office
28 March 1997 – 20 May 2000
Preceded byLiau Pen-yang (acting)
Liu Pang-yu
Succeeded byHsu Ying-shen (acting)
Eric Chu
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office
1 February 1993 – 31 January 1996
ConstituencyTaoyuan County constituency
Personal details
Born (1944-06-07) 7 June 1944 (age 80)
Tōen Town, Shinchiku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan (now Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan)
NationalityTaiwanese
Political partyDemocratic Progressive Party (1986-present)
Other political
affiliations
Alma mater
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionLawyer
Annette Lu
Traditional Chinese呂秀蓮
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLǚ Xiùlián
Wade–GilesLü³ Hsiu⁴-lien²
Southern Min
Hokkien POJLū Siù-liân

Annette Lu Hsiu-lien (Chinese: 呂秀蓮; pinyin: Lǚ Xiùlián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lū Siù-liân; born 7 June 1944) is a Taiwanese politician. A feminist active in the tangwai movement, she joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 1990, and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992. Subsequently, she served as Taoyuan County Magistrate between 1997 and 2000, and was the Vice President of Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) from 2000 to 2008, under President Chen Shui-bian. Lu announced her intentions to run for the presidency on 6 March 2007, but withdrew to support eventual DPP nominee Frank Hsieh. Lu ran again in 2012, but withdrew for a second time, ceding the nomination to DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.[citation needed] She lost the party's Taipei mayoral nomination to Pasuya Yao in 2018, and stated that she would leave the party. However, by the time Lu announced in September 2019 that she would contest the 2020 presidential election on behalf of the Formosa Alliance, she was still a member of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Early life and education

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Lu was born in Tōen Town (now Taoyuan City), in northern Taiwan, during Japanese rule. She has both Hoklo and Hakka ancestry, with her paternal ancestor arriving in Taiwan from Nanjing County, Zhangzhou, Fujian in 1740.[1] She has one older brother and three older sisters.[2]

After graduating from Taipei First Girls' High School, Lu studied law at the National Taiwan University. Graduating in 1967, she went on to gain a Master of Laws from both the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (in comparative law, 1971) and Harvard University (1978).

Rise in politics

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During the 1970s, Lu established herself as a prominent feminist advocate in Taiwan, which included writing of New Feminism or Xin Nüxing Zhuyi (新女性主義). She renounced her KMT membership,[3] joined the tangwai movement, and worked in the staff of Formosa Magazine. Lu then became increasingly active in the movement, calling for democracy and an end to authoritarian rule.

In 1979, Lu delivered a 20-minute speech criticizing the government at an International Human Rights Day rally that later became known as the Kaohsiung Incident. Following this rally, virtually the entire leadership of Taiwan's democracy movement, including Lu, was imprisoned. She was tried, found guilty of violent sedition, and sentenced by a military court to 12 years in prison. She was named by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and, due to international pressure, coupled with the work of Ma Ying-jeou and Jerome A. Cohen, was released in 1985, after approximately five and a half years in jail.[4][5]

In the 1990s, Lu worked to have Taiwan reenter the United Nations, not under the name "Republic of China" but as "Taiwan".[6]

Elected offices

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Lu joined the Democratic Progressive Party in November 1990,[7] and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992.[8][9] In 1997, she won an election to be the Magistrate of her hometown of Taoyuan,[10][11] a post she held until Chen Shui-bian selected her as his running mate in the 2000 presidential elections.

Novel

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Lu completed her novel entitled These Three Women while in prison. To evade the surveillance of the detention facility, she wrote part of the novel on toilet paper[12] using a washbasin as a desk. In 2008, the novel was adapted into a screenplay for TV drama of the same name. The drama was broadcast on 24 November 2008 on the Chinese Television System.

Vice Presidency, 2000–2008

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On 18 March 2000, Lu was elected vice president. She was awarded the World Peace Corps Mission's World Peace Prize in 2001.[13] Controversy erupted over this in Taiwan, with Lu's political opponents accusing her of vastly overstating the significance and value of that award. She was also the ROC's first elected vice president to adopt a Western first name. In her interview with TIME Asia Magazine, she said the KMT never thought they would transfer their regime to her on behalf of the freedom fighters.[clarification needed][14]

Lu was a contender for the 2008 presidential election; she announced her candidacy on March 6 and faced Yu Shyi-kun, Frank Hsieh, and Su Tseng-chang for the nomination. After receiving only 6.16% of the votes cast in the DPP primary, Lu withdrew from the race.[15][16]

Assassination attempt

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Main article: 3-19 shooting incident

On 19 March 2004, Lu was shot in the right kneecap while campaigning in Tainan. Chen was shot in the abdomen at the same event. Both survived the shooting and left Chi-mei Hospital on the same day. The Pan-Blue Coalition suggested that the shooting was not an assassination attempt but that it was staged to a self-inflicted wound in order to gain sympathy votes. The Chen/Lu ticket won the election on the following day with a 0.228% margin, a figure significant to those who related it to the assassination incident.

Later political career

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Lu with Ambassador Joey Wang, Senator Eva Syková and Mark Chen during the 2016 Forum 2000 conference in Prague.

Lu announced in March 2018 that she would contest the Democratic Progressive Party mayoral primary for Taipei.[17] Soon after the DPP nominated Pasuya Yao as its candidate, Lu stated her intention to leave the party.[18][19]

She remained a DPP member through 2019, and announced in September 2019 that she would contest the 2020 presidential election on behalf of the Formosa Alliance, with Peng Pai-hsien as her running mate.[20][21] On 2 November 2019, Lu suspended her presidential campaign.[22][23]

Cross-strait relations

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In terms of Cross-Strait relations with China, Lu has been more outspoken in favor of Taiwan independence than President Chen Shui-bian, and as such has been more heavily attacked than Chen both by the government of the People's Republic of China and by supporters of Chinese unification. Her remarks have led state newspapers in mainland China to accuse her of provoking "animosity between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits".[24] PRC state media has also labeled Lu as "insane" and as "scum of the earth".[citation needed]

In 2010 Lu visited South Korea and advocated Taiwan's use of what she called "soft power," meaning peaceful economic and political development, as a model for the resolution of international conflicts.[25] In mid-April 2013 speaking at George Washington University, Lu called for the DPP to better understand Mainland China, because Taiwan's future depends on development on the mainland. She stated that cross-strait relations should be defined as not only between distant relatives, but between near neighbors. She also stressed that there should be neither hatred nor war between Taiwan and Mainland China, and that both sides should pursue peaceful coexistence, industrial cooperation, and cultural exchanges.[26]

Speaking at the founding ceremony of Anti-One China Principle Union in Taipei on 29 April 2013, Lu warned against silent annexation of Taiwan by China since the introduction of Anti-Secession Law in 2005 and the gradual erosion of Taiwan's sovereignty. However, she said Taiwan is not opposed to one China existing in the world, just that Taiwan is not part of China. She criticized ROC President Ma Ying-jeou for making Taiwan more and more dependent on China. She reiterated her 1996 Consensus (in opposition to the Kuomintang's 1992 Consensus) for dealing with the PRC, in which she said Taiwan has been an independent sovereign country since the 1996 ROC presidential election.[27]

Corruption charges and acquittal

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On September 21, 2007, Lu, along with DPP chairman Yu Shyi-Kun and National Security Office secretary-general Mark Chen, were separately indicted on charges of corruption by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Taiwan.[28] Lu was accused of embezzlement and special fund abuse of about US$165,000.[28] On July 2, 2012, all three were acquitted of all charges.[29]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "忘記就是背叛——福建南靖吕氏宗親痛責吕秀蓮". 人民網. 2000-04-14. Archived from the original on 2020-05-16. Retrieved 2016-07-10.
  2. ^ Ni, Ching-ching (30 May 2000). "A Sister's Rise and a Brother's Obsession". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  3. ^ "KMT: DPP heavyweights were once members". China Post. 3 March 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  4. ^ Emma Batha (19 May 2000). "Taiwan's top woman". BBC News. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  5. ^ Stockman, Farah (3 July 2012). "How a Harvard rivalry changed Taiwan". Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. ^ Taiwan: A New History. p. 438.
  7. ^ Yeh, Su-ping; Liu, Kuan-lin (30 May 2018). "Former VP Lu says 'bye, bye' to DPP". Central News Agency. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  8. ^ Gargan, Edward A. (4 July 1994). "Taipei Journal; A Feminist's Work Is Never Done". New York Times.
  9. ^ Tang, Wen-hui Anna; Teng, Emma J. (May–June 2016). "Looking again at Taiwan's Lü Hsiu-lien: A female vice president or a feminist vice president?". Women's Studies International Forum. 56: 92–102. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2016.01.006. hdl:1721.1/111954.
  10. ^ "Special election set for Taoyuan magistrate". Taiwan Today. February 1997. Retrieved 1 June 2018.[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ "Ruling Resumes". Taiwan Today. 1 May 2000. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  12. ^ Troy Parfitt (2008). Notes from the Other China: Adventures in Asia. Algora Publishing. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-0-87586-584-3.
  13. ^ Lu becomes first woman to win World Peace Prize TAIPEI TIMES. Monique Chu. [November 30, 2001]
  14. ^ "ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Annette Lu: 'They Made Me Famous' | 4/19/2000". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  15. ^ "VP quits race for Taiwan presidency", Al Jazeera, 7 May 2007.
  16. ^ "Frank Hsieh Confirmed as DPP Standard Bearer", The China Post, 8 May 2007.
  17. ^ Yeh, Su-ping; Hsu, Elizabeth (7 March 2018). "Former VP Annette Lu announces bid for Taipei mayoral seat". Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  18. ^ Hsu, Stacy (1 June 2018). "Annette Lu bids DPP farewell after failed mayoral bid". Taipei Times. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  19. ^ Wu, Jui-chi; Chang, S. C. (31 May 2018). "Ex-VP Lu says DPP no longer has anything to do with her". Central News Agency. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  20. ^ Yeh, Su-ping; Wen, Kuei-hisang; Huang, Frances (17 September 2019). "Former Vice President Annette Lu enters presidential race". Central News Agency. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  21. ^ Wu, Chun-feng; Yang, Chun-hui; Chung, Jake (18 September 2019). "Ex-vice president Lu to run for president". Taipei Times. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  22. ^ Huang, Rei-hung; Ko, Lin (2 November 2019). "Former Taiwan vice president abandons presidential bid". Central News Agency. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  23. ^ Chen, Yun (3 November 2019). "Annette Lu withdraws presidential bid". Taipei Times. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  24. ^ "What Is Annette Lu Up To?", People's Daily, 4/17/00
  25. ^ Soft power lets Taiwan overcome poverty, survive despotism: Lu Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Taiwan News, 18 February 2010.
  26. ^ "Ex-VP Lu slams DPP for overlooking China". The China Post. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  27. ^ "Lu warns on 'silent annexation' by China - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  28. ^ a b Jane Rickards (September 22, 2007). "Taiwan's Vice President, 2 Others Charged With Corruption". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
  29. ^ Huang, Yi-han; Chen, Ann (July 2, 2012). "Former vice president found not guilty of special fund abuse". Central News Agency. Retrieved April 25, 2020.

Bibliography

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[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by
Liau Pen-yang
Acting
 Magistrate of Taoyuan County
1997–2000 		Succeeded by
Hsu Ying-shen
Acting
Preceded by Vice President of the Republic of China
2000–2008 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by DPP nominee for Vice President of the Republic of China
2000, 2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (acting)
2005–2006 		Succeeded by
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