Presidential Politics in Taiwan: The Administration of Chen Shui-bian

In late July 2006 Yu Shyi-kun chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) addressed the partys 12th congress and offered an apology (daoqian) for the DPPs failure to meet the expectations of the society and people of Taiwan during the previous six years. As charges of corruption and calls for the presidents resignation swirled around the embattled Chen Shui-bian administration Yus frank admission of failure reflected the crisis of self-confidence and pessimism that seemed to have gripped the party. In this book we discuss some of the main themes that emerged following Chen Shui-bians election and seek to elucidate the major challenges that the administration faced as well as the policies that Chen established. This serves as a foundation for the individual chapters assessing the direction that the Chen Shui-bian administration took in regard to the major issue areas of: domestic political dynamics; socio-political hot buttons and foreign policy/national security. Each chapter addresses the question of how the Chen administrations first term defined debated and impacted specific aspects of the evolving Taiwanese polity.