A day after his election as a Greater Kaohsiung City councilor, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son spoke about his jailed father and an alliance of municipal council members who insist that Taiwan and China are separate countries.
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), 31, won 32,947 votes, more than any other candidate running in the Greater Kaohsiung City Council election on Saturday.
As a member of the new “one side, one country” alliance, a political group dedicated to promoting Taiwan’s independence, Chen Chih-chung claimed that victory for him and other like-minded candidates signified an endorsement by voters.
More than 30 members of the alliance won council seats in the election, with nearly one-third becoming councilors in Greater Tainan, a municipality merging Tainan City and Tainan County.
Most members of the alliance are also members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Chen Chih-chung attributed his big win to voters’ support for his father and said he would fight “for his father’s innocence.”
Earlier this month, the former president and his wife were each sentenced by the Supreme Court to a total of 19 years in jail on a series of corruption charges.
The younger Chen has his own share of legal problems. In a money-laundering case, he was sentenced by a higher court in June to 14 months in prison and fined NT$30 million (US$937,500). His appeal is pending in the Supreme Court. In July a tabloid magazine linked Chen Chih-chung to a prostitute. Although Chen filed libel lawsuits against the magazine and a rival politician, a district court ruled against him in both cases.
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