Lian Shengwen, vice chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang think tank, said yesterday that he would "seriously evaluate whether to run for party chairman" and set up media groups at the same time, with a clear situation of participation. Lien Shengwen, who was once the rising star of the Blue Camp, once faded out of the political circle after experiencing the defeat of the Taipei mayoral election, and after Jiang Qichen became the party chairman last year, he hired him as vice chairman of the party think tank, and now he is loosely considering running for party leader, wanting to challenge Jiang Qichen, who is seeking re-election, which has aroused external concern.
<h1>He was once regarded as a "new generation of political stars"</h1>
The 51-year-old Lien Sheng Wen family is prominent, his father Lien Chan is the former deputy leader of the Taiwan region Lien Chan, his grandfather Lian Zhendong was a former official to the "Executive Yuan Political Council", and his great-grandfather Lian Heng was a Taiwan cultural celebrity and the author of the "General History of Taiwan".
Some people question that Lien Shengwen relied on his ancestral protection to have a position in the political and business circles, but from his resume, he also has strong abilities, after graduating from the law school of Fu Jen University, he went to the United States to study and obtained a doctorate from Columbia University. After graduating, he worked for world-class companies such as Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and GE Group.
In September 2005, Lien Shengwen began to enter politics. At the Kuomintang Party Congress that year, the 35-year-old was elected to the Central Standing Committee with a high vote, becoming a new generation of political stars in the Blue Camp. In August 2008, Hao Longbin, then mayor of Taipei, announced that Lien Shengwen would serve as an official director of Yoyo Ka Company and was elected by the board of directors as chairman. By May 2010, he resigned for health reasons, and his career in Yuyu Kadongza was his only public service experience on the island.
<h1>The image of the "magnate" hurt him</h1>
In the years since, Lien has suffered two major setbacks in a row. On November 26, 2010, while canvassing for votes for New Taipei City Councillor candidate Chen Hongyuan, Lien Was shot in the head and rushed to national Taiwan University Hospital, where the emergency team was formed by the well-known physician Ke Wenzhe.
Later, the court found that the suspect in the shooting, Lin Zhengwei, was a local gang boss, and he mistakenly believed that Lian Shengwen was Chen Hongyuan and shot and killed. He was shot in the head and finally recovered after treatment, while another man who was hit by a stray bullet was not so lucky and was sent to the hospital and died. For the statement of "mistaken strike", Lian Shengwen did not agree, believing that there was another hidden plot behind it, but there was no tangible evidence.
Being elected mayor of Taipei has been a wish of Mr. Lien for years, and in 2014 he ran for the Kuomintang against Ko Wen-che, who saved his life four years ago. Although Taipei has always been regarded as the base camp of the Blue Army, after the "anti-service trade movement" that broke out in the spring of that year, the overall social atmosphere was quite unfavorable to Lian Shengwen.
Compared with competitors, Lien Shengwen has two major "disadvantages", first, his father Lien Chan has been in close contact with the mainland since the "ice-breaking trip" in 2005, resulting in Lian Shengwen being "smeared" in the election; second, Lien Shengwen's lingering image of "magnates" is very unpleasant to young people, on the contrary, the older Ke Wenzhe has a group of young fans. In the end, the winning streak ended the election with a big loss of nearly 250,000 votes.
<h1>Lien Shengwen offended many people in the party</h1>
After losing the election, Lien Shengwen gradually faded out of the political circle, knowing that his shortcomings were in the youth group, so he founded the Youth Development Foundation in January 2015 and served as the CEO and chairman.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang in the 2020 "general election", the party think tank was also reorganized, and the new party chairman Jiang Qichen extended Lian Shengwen as the chairman of the think tank. Even I said at the time that I hoped that the think tank would cultivate talents for the party and society in the future.
Lian Shengwen has a personality and is extremely easy to get along with. As long as a friend has something to ask him for help, he can do it, never calculate the stakes or ask for returns, will do his best to help. However, within the party, Lien Shengwen was known for his outspokenness and often fired cannons, thus offending many "adults" in the party. Not long ago, Jiang Qichen invited Ke Wenzhe to participate in the Kuomintang forum, because he did not consult with Lian Shengwen, and Lian chose to openly express his dissatisfaction in the media.
Recently, Lian Shengwen also threw out the idea that "the future party chairman should be full-time", which was interpreted as a sword pointing at Jiang Qichen, who said yesterday that he would "seriously evaluate whether to run for party chairman", and the party's interpretation of his candidacy was clear. However, in the view of Ran Lingxuan, a judge in the Kuomintang, Lian's support base in the party is relatively weak, and his popularity is based on the generational score of his father Lien Chan, so even such a set of declarations can have little influence, and it is difficult to play a role in raising the momentum, and it should not shake Jiang Qichen.
In addition to being a member of the Standing Committee and the Central Committee of the Kuomintang who had no real power, Lian Shengwen lacked experience in public office, which was regarded as a limiting factor for his future political development.
Straits Herald reporter Xue Yang @ Taiwan Straits Master Brother