Apollo Chen

Born in Taipei, Chen attended Jianguo High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from National Taiwan University, followed by a master's in Chinese studies at Tamkang University. He wrote for the China Daily News and China Times and was also a television anchor on Asia Television.^[1]

Chen served on the Taipei City Council from 1991 to 1998.^[2][3] His first stint in the Legislative Yuan began the next year and lasted until 2005. Chen was the spokesman of Lien Chan's 2000 presidential campaign.^[4][5] In between legislative stints, he was the director of the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau.^[6][7][8] Chen, backed by the Kuomintang,^[9] ran for the legislature again in the Taoyuan County by-election of 2010, losing to Huang Jen-shu [zh] by approximately 3,000 votes.^[10][11] He returned to the legislature in 2012. In 2014, Chen was suspended from the Kuomintang for casting a vote against the Land Administration Agent Act.^[12] However, the censure did not prevent him from running for reelection in 2016, which he won.^[13] It was initially reported that Chen had defeated Hsu Ching-wen [zh] by 390 votes.^[14][15] A recount by the Taoyuan District Court revealed that Chen had won by 389 votes.^[16][17]

His party's presidential candidate, Eric Chu, was not successful and subsequently resigned the KMT chairmanship. Chen declared his interest in the position a few days after Chu's resignation was finalized.^[18][19] On 22 February, Chen submitted a petition of 24,179 signatures to the party committee responsible for overseeing elections.^[20] The party confirmed 10,710 of those signatures, validating his candidacy.^[21] Chen finished fourth in the election, which was won by Hung Hsiu-chu.^[22]

In March 2018, the Kuomintang announced that Chen had defeated Lu Ming-che and Yang Li-huan [zh] in a primary held to decide the party's candidate in the Taoyuan mayoral election.^[23]

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