1. Eric Li-luan Chu is a Taiwanese politician, statistician, and academic who is currently the chairman of the Kuomintang.
30 Facts About Eric Chu
1. 2.
Eric Chu served as a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2001, and as the magistrate of Taoyuan County from 2001 to 2009.
3.
Eric Chu was elected as the first mayor of the newly established city of New Taipei on 27 November 2010.
4.
Eric Chu was defeated by his opponent Tsai Ing-wen, and subsequently resigned his post as KMT chairman.
5.
Eric Chu is married to Kao Wan-ching ; his father-in-law, Kao Yu-jen, is former speaker of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, chairman of Twinhead International Corp and founder of FiberLogic Communications.
6.
Eric Chu initially taught as an associate professor in accounting at National Taiwan University and was promoted to a tenured professor in 1997.
7.
Eric Chu 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.
8.
Eric Chu served in these positions for one year until 2001.
9.
Eric Chu won the 2001 Taoyuan County Magistrate election held on 1 December 2001 as a member of then-opposition Kuomintang, defeating Democratic Progressive Party candidate Perng Shaw-jiin.
10.
Eric 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.
11.
Eric Chu then took office for his second term as magistrate on 20 December 2005.
12.
Eric 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.
13.
At the age of 48, Eric Chu was the youngest Vice Premier in ROC history.
14.
On 13 May 2010, Eric Chu submitted his resignation to Premier Wu to run for mayor of the newly created New Taipei City, the successor of Taipei County.
15.
In May 2010 before the New Taipei City Mayor election, Eric Chu outlined his vision for the city.
16.
Eric Chu defeated DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on 27 November 2010, to become the first mayor of New Taipei on 25 December 2010.
17.
Eric 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.
18.
On 29 November 2014, Eric Chu won the New Taipei City mayoralty election, defeating his opponent Yu Shyi-kun of the Democratic Progressive Party.
19.
On 17 January 2015, Eric Chu ran unopposed in the KMT chairmanship election.
20.
Eric Chu was the only candidate to have registered and paid the NT$2 million registration fee.
21.
Eric Chu 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.
22.
In 2000 Eric Chu claimed that these assets total US$3.15 billion; they include 146 plots of land, many in prime locations, as well as 157 houses and buildings.
23.
The party's decision to replace Hung had been made prior to the meeting, and Eric Chu had apologized to Hung multiple times for the way the party had treated her.
24.
On 19 October 2015, Eric Chu announced his intention to temporarily leave mayoral duties to Deputy Mayor Hou Yu-ih starting the next day.
25.
Eric Chu planned to take three months of leave, to focus on his presidential campaign.
26.
The monthly salary of NT$190,500 Eric Chu would have collected during this time was to be donated to the New Taipei City treasury.
27.
Eric Chu suffered an enormous defeat in the 2016 presidential election, losing 18 of 23 counties.
28.
Eric Chu resigned the KMT chairmanship, and returned to the New Taipei City mayorship on 18 January 2016.
29.
Eric Chu announced that he would run in the 2021 Kuomintang chairmanship election on 2 August 2021.
30.
Eric Chu finished first of four candidates on 25 September 2021, and took office on 5 October 2021.