Chapter 1:Introduction:Chen Shui-bian and Taiwan's Democracy In mid-January 2008,Taiwan's voters went to the polls to elect mem- bers of a new Legislative Yuan,the national lawmaking body of government. Soon after the ballots were counted the media reported that the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT)had scored a"resounding victory."Its candi- dates won eighty-one seats (in the 113-member body);the then ruling De- mocratic Progressive Party (DPP)got but twenty-seven seats.Only two DPP candidates won seats in the northern,western and easter parts of the island. The DPP even failed to perform well in most of what observers saw as its “stronghold areas.nl Shortly after the election,President Chen Shui-bian announced publi- cally that the DPP had suffered its"worst defeat since the party's founding." He confessed that the loss was his responsibility and resigned as party chairman.He then left the country,the press said to avoid facing angry party members and because of his personal embarrassment.Indeed the most sali- ent reasons for the DPP's huge loss all related to President Chen:his horren- dous corruption,mismanagement of the economy,and wrecking relations with the United States-Taiwan's only important friend and its protector.3 In March,President Chen and his party experienced another election de- bacle.The DPP's presidential and vice presidential candidates Frank Hsieh and Su Cheng-chang suffered a stunning defeat in the presidential and vice- presidential election at the hands of the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou and Vincent Siew.The Ma-Siew ticket garnered more votes than any presidential and vice presidential candidates in any such election ever held in Taiwan.The duo got better than fifty-eight percent of the popular vote,more than Lee Teng-hui had won as an incumbent in 1996 and almost twenty percent above what Chen Shui-bian had won in his historic presidential election victory in 2000.The Ma ticket won twenty of twenty-five electoral districts,including many that were traditional "green"or DPP territory.Ma and Siew won in Kaohsiung where Frank Hsieh had been mayor and in Tainan near President Chen's hometown.They were victorious in all of the districts of northern and central Taiwan,the Pescadores,and the Offshore Islands.Hsieh and Su