Chen Shui-Bian

1. The only Taiwanese president who did the following achievements without a friendly congress and declaration of martial law. - Chen realized referendum capability for the Taiwanese people, something that was not even dreamed of 5 years ago, allowing Taiwan to be a true democratic entity. - Chen Administration completed 1st step economic reform that prevented Taiwan from suffering the same kind of financial crisis the Americans had in 1980's. The reform cleared away over 500 billion NT of bad debts and it restored Taiwanese sovereign credit rating. Such policy would take much longer to implement in other countries for the fact it often negatively impacts election, most popularly elected officials dare not to promote such policy. - Under Chen administration, China Airlines improved its profitability after being privatized and also its safety reason improved dramatically safety rating* and it has no casualties except for one accident in the years after privatization making it a more stronger competitor to EVA Air. before Chen Administration, CAL was second worst airline in world or ranked 88th out of 89. - Chen Administration increased Taiwanese focused education on Taiwanese related history and mother tongue education(including Hakka and Formosan languages) are being taught at K-9 level to ensure cultural preservation, back in the KMT time, people were taught to embrace Chinese culture and detest Taiwanese culture. And starting next year, Taiwanese will have even more Taiwan-focused history education to educate our next generation and have more firm identity awareness. - Chen enforced the policy of having "Taiwan" on the passport to ensure passengers will not be wrongfully classified as Chinese when traveling abroad. And the renaming policy goes further to all government agencies. Such policy is in accordance to the world's standard of recognizing "Taiwan" but not confuse it with China. - Chen made more diplomatic trips to our diplomatic friends than any other presidents in the past. Putting effort in creating bridges for us to invest in 2 of the big 4s in the future: India, and Latin America. Which will be excellent alternatives to China. the administration also made breakthroughs in economic diplomacy with Vietnam and Europe. - Chen Administration, cease the functionality of Unification Guidelines Council and bring Taiwan back to true status quo. And letting people be in the position to decide about Taiwan WITHOUT any preset premises made by government. - Under Chen Administration, Taiwan has successfully entered the WTO without compromising much of our benefits. - Swift control of the epidemic SARS even without WHO's involvement and maintained steady competitive rating of 6th in the world through IMD. And 4th in the most competitive emerging market. - Chen administration enforced the creation of Council of Hakka Affairs and further funding and focus on the Council of the Aborigine Affairs to promote Taiwanese ethnic unity. More budget to programs other than the community leaders(reduce corruption possibility). Created the world's first Hakka TV channel. Further rights and privileges were allocated to the aborigine population to stimulate economic activities and growth. - Under Chen administration, Taiwan's first Human Rights Advisory Committee is established in Taiwan back in 2000, a couple years later, Taiwan's Freedom House reating received (1.5) rating compare to KMT's (5.5) rating in the past. Taiwan's current rating is (1.2), and it was (1.1) 2 years ago. And Taiwan has been improving in relative progress ever since. - Taiwan is also LESS corrupt compare to the world. Taken the fact Taiwan's a lot more transparent than in the past, the corruption today should be far better than in the past, Hence, an improvement. Taiwan's CPI score(corruption perception index) is 5.9 as of 2005. Rank 32 out of 158 in the world. According to Transparency International from Germany, Taiwan's corruption perception index rating has been improving. In Asia, Taiwan's freedom of the press rating is tied in the first place with Japan in Asia. Later on Taiwan maintain to be in top 20% as more countries are added to the evaluation pool. here are the numbers of the past CPI figures for Taiwan: 2002 Score: 5.6 Rank: 29/102 top 28% percentile 2003 Score: 5.7 Rank: 30/133 (top 22%) 2005 Score:5.9 Rank:32/159 (top 20%) 2006 Score: 5.9 Rank: 34/163 (top 20%) Taiwanese has been IMPROVING as we can see clearly, and its score has been going up. -. Under Chen administration, various BOT projects such as the high speed rail is completed and other infrastructures such the Hsuehshan tunnel. And Taichung (chingquankang) Airport. These will push Taiwan into a new age of national urbanization for economic activities. And BOT project often is very difficult for first time governments. - Under Chen Administration's plans to promote service industries and entrepreneurship, service industry revenue increased by over 66%. Foreign visitors jumped from 3 million in 2000 to estimate of 5 million in 2008. in 2007, the service industry revenue makes up for 71% of the total GDP output. Setting Taiwan up for a true developed economy of 1st world countries~ ! - Chen established world class universal medicare system that is among top of the world. - Chen increased the Southern Industrial Park revenue from $772 million in 2000 to $16.2 billion in 2007, increased over 52000 new jobs in last 7 years. - Chen Administration maintained the gap of rich and poor as shown by the Gini coefficient, the indicator used to measure wealth distribution. When the coefficient figure is smaller or closer to 0, it shows it is more equally distributed(such as the socialist countries in Scandinavia, they are below 0.2 on average), if the number is further away from 0, it shows the gap of rich and poor is wider(countries like China, Argentina, South Africa, all above 0.6). Taiwan - 0.33 Korea - 0.36 Japan - 0.38 Singapore - 0.425 USA - 0.47 As one can see that Taiwan is not better than the Nordic countries, but it is better than US, Japan, Singapore, and Korea. Taiwan has always maintained around 0.33 since they took over. Also, the total population living under poverty line in Taiwan is less than 0.95% of Taiwan. - Under Chen's DPP, Taiwan's inflation rate maintain around 1-2% annually, that is a quarter of China's inflation rate, and less than half of Korea's, it is also better than the Chiang Era, when the price level increased by 47.5% in 1960's, 20% in 80's, and nearly 5% annually in 1990's. - Under DPP, Taiwanese economic growth averaged 3.8% annually in the past 8 years and unemployment rate fall below 5% after 2004 and it is at 3.9% in 2007, far better than most developed countries. - DPP started their party with anti-nuclear power and environmentalism in mind, Taiwan was ranked 24th in world environmental protection performance in 2006, it was better than US and Korea. 2. A very underrated but controversial president. 3. An open sore to China. 4. The first non-KMT democratically elected president of Taiwan. 5. A "lame" but committed president. 6. A civil rights and democracy fighter. 7. Youngest person to pass bar exam in Taiwanese history.