Chen Shui-bian's means of amassing fortune exposed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 08, 2004

Chen Shui-bian's means of amassing fortune exposed

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As the "presidential election" in Taiwan is drawing near, the green and blue camps in the Island have shifted to another battlefield -- the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned Lien Chan and his men as hoarding property from unidentified sources; while the Kuomintang and the People First Party criticized Chen Shui-bian's overnight fortune from money-for-power deals. For quite sometime the people in Taiwan were dazzled by these darting charges and accuses, their curiosity particularly roused by how Chen Shui-bian, who has always claimed himself a "clean reformer", rose from a son of tenant to a billionaire in ten years.

Chen possesses a property worth 400 million new Taiwan dollars

The presidential candidacy headquarters of Lien Chan and Soong Chu-yu published a news report regarding Chen Shui-bian's sizable property on December 26, 2003. Based on statistics from the "Control Yuan" on salary of civil servants, the Kuomintang estimated that during the ten years from his being elected as a "legislator" to the island leader, Chen's family savings increased by 70 million (New Taiwan Dollar, same below, four dollars equal to about one yuan Renminbi), and his stock value soared from initial 550,000 dollars to over 300 million dollars, the two items totaling about 400 million dollars. During his four years as Taipei mayor, the article pointed out, Chen's savings rose sharply from 5.2 million dollars to 54 million dollars; even after he stepped down from the post he reaped some 40 million dollars by stock within a year. When he was a mayor his two sons were still students, but under the two children's names there were already two houses worth 30 million dollars and stock shares valued 40 million dollars. The slack economy suffered by the island in recent three years didn't prevent Chen's property from growing at an average speed of 30 million dollars per year.

Lien Chan and Soong Chu-yu declared that they have no doubt about the story for a riff-raff to start from scratch neither they suspect Chen's capability of transforming himself from a tenant's son to a billionaire. But they cannot help wondering and asking, on behalf of Taiwan people, how he did it? In a mocking tone they said they admired Chen Shui-bian for his means of amassing fortune, and his wife Wu Shu-chen is also a good financier, the couple forming a "perfect match for riddling economy!"

Chen's four major means of gaining overnight wealth

Chen Shui-bian was born into a poor peasant family in Tainan County, on February 18, 1951. For many years before he leapt into wealth, the family lived on the meager income from his father's odd jobs. A recollection of Chen himself told when he was a child, the money for rice and his schooling was all borrowed. His mother used to jot all debts and interests of the household down on walls so their walls invariably bore strings of Arabic numerals. The family wasn't able to afford a black and white TV set until he was a junior student in university, and the condition remained much unchanged upon his graduation. Chen's wife recalled that Chen had been striving for money to pay debts until years after their marriage.

Chen Shui-bian graduated from the law department of Taipei University in June 1974, and little by little he made himself known by the law community of the island. Later, by lodging lawsuits for "Taiwan Independence" personages he entered into politics, which brought a major turn into his life. In 1989, Chen was elected as a "legislative member" and then acted as Taipei mayor from 1994 to 1998; in 2000 he became "president" of Taiwan. It is striking that he reaped billions of dollars in a decade, and no wonder many Taiwan people depicted him as an "overnight billionaire". Then how on earth he made it? After calculations local media summed up Chen's four major means for making his fortune.

The first is to "earn money with unidentified sources". Chen once argued that part of his property is salaries earned as a lawyer and a politician. As a maritime lawyer, he did earn a sum during the 18 years before turning to politics. But his reported property only stood at 10 million dollars before his official post as Taipei mayor, or one fortieth of his current 400 million dollars. His salary and subsidy as four-year Taipei mayor wouldn't exceed 8 million dollars even if he saved every penny he earned without eating and drinking; and those for his four-year "presidentship" will be only around 30 million dollars.

The second is guaranteed profits on the stock market, from which he earned more than 200 million dollars, the lion's share of his increased property. In recent years the island's stock market has been sliding, with most investors moaning for losses. Yet Chen's shares soared steadily by dozens of times, and the number of shares under his wife's name also exploded from 60,000 to 1.5 million. The reason is that Chen has two "magic weapons". First and foremost, his wife, in her special position, sneaked into the core of the stock market, where she could follow big investors to gulp down individual ones, despite that she doesn't know much about the trade. Secondly, during his exercise of power, Chen made policies favoring large financial groups to affect the stock prices of Taiwan enterprises. As a result it is crystal clear to him which business was to rise in stock and which to fall, so the only thing for him to do is to count money. According to local media, although Chen tried his best to prevent Taiwan enterprises from investing in the mainland, it is his wife who bought the most of these enterprises' shares among all officials and their spouses of Taiwan authorities. This may be a way unique to Chen in handling the money.

The third is to feather its own nest with a large amount of kickbacks from major financial groups. As a "legislator" Chen had a dozen assistants working under him, and almost all of them got instant money from these financial groups. Chen of course is the biggest winner. After becoming Taipei mayor, he set up a foundation to receive sizeable "political donations" and involved deeper with these financial groups later as a Taiwan leader. In a book entitled "The True Colors of Chen Shui-bian", renowned Taiwan writer Li Ao and Taipei City councilor Lee Ching-yuan disclosed Chen's tactics of "creating economic miracles", mentioning money-for-power deals as the biggest tool for hitting a fortune.

The fourth is to line his purse by selling "state-owned" or "publicly owned" properties at low prices. After Chen's gaining presidency the island suffered from tight revenue and selling out properties of "state-owned undertakings" has become a main source of fund. Over four years he has ladled out "public" properties worth nearly 70 billion dollars, and no one knows for sure how many kickbacks he ever got from it.

Taiwan people calling for explanations

Facing accuses from the blue camp, the DPP made tit-for-tat retort by clinging to the questions of Lien Chan's private properties and party properties of the Kuomintang, saying they are no cleaner. The DPP tried to defend Chen Shui-bian, but failed to fish out any convincing argument. No wonder some people asked, how a civil servant (referring to Chen) could earn so much money?

The answer, as a matter of fact, is simple-Chen's money is looted from others. While Chen's private property swelled at an alarming speed, ordinary Taiwan people suffered continuous income drops. In 2002, as statistics showed, the average per capita income in Taiwan reduced by 9.07 percent as against the previous year; while the number of people unemployed rose by 222,000 than 2001 to reach 515,000. By now the total debt of the Taiwan authorities has surpassed 3.1 trillion dollars or 500,000 dollars if evenly shared out to each household.

The DPP has always styled itself as a "clean reformer" in order to woo public trust. But the party, after coming into power, degenerated rapidly and its image as a reformer has been much besmeared. After Chen's presidency, the gap between the rich and the poor widened and people's living standards declined. While Chen's exploding property fueled dissatisfactions over his policies. Worse, even Chen himself is unable to produce convincing explanations on his sharp rising property, and the "clean" reputation of the DPP fell flat onto the ground. As a result, many analysts pointed out that Chen's property shot up under the camouflage of a "fighter for democracy", and the exposure this time has dealt a heavy blow to his chances in the campaign.

Chen Shui-bian became a billionaire, amidst complaints from ordinary people.

Article from the Global Times, page 16, January 2, by special reporter Zhang Yiyao, translated by PD Online staff member Li Heng.

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