Annette Lu

Early life

Lu was born in Tōen Town (now Taoyuan City), in northern Taiwan, during Japanese rule. She has one older brother and three older sisters. After graduating from Taipei First Girls' High School, Lu studied law at the National Taiwan University. Graduating in 1967, she went on to gain a Master of Laws from both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (in comparative law, 1971) and Harvard University (1978).

Rise in politics

During the 1970s, Lu established herself as a prominent feminist advocate in Taiwan, which included writing of New Feminism or Xin Nüxing Zhuyi (新女性主義). She renounced her KMT membership, joined the Tangwai movement, and worked on the staff of Formosa Magazine. Lu then became increasingly active in the tang-wai, the opposition movement calling for democracy and an end to authoritarian rule.

In 1979 she delivered a 20-minute speech criticizing the government at an International Human Rights Day rally that later became known as the Kaohsiung Incident. Following this rally, virtually the entire leadership of Taiwan's democracy movement, including Lu, was imprisoned. She was tried, found guilty of violent sedition, and sentenced by a military court to 12 years in prison. She was named by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and partly due to international pressure was released in 1985, after approximately five-and-a-half years in jail.

Elected Offices

She was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1993. In 1997, she won an election to be the Magistrate of Taoyuan, a post she held until Chen Shui-bian selected her as his running mate in the 2000 presidential elections.

Novel

Lu completed her novel entitled These Three Women while in prison. To evade the surveillance of the detention facility, she wrote part of the novel on toilet paper using a washbasin as a desk. In 2008, the novel was adapted into a screenplay for TV drama of the same name. The drama was broadcast on November 24, 2008 on the Chinese Television System.

Vice Presidency, 2000–2008

On 18 March 2000, Lu was elected vice president. She was awarded the World Peace Corps Mission's World Peace Prize in 2001. Controversy erupted over this in Taiwan, with Lu's political opponents accusing her of vastly overstating the significance and value of that award. She was also the ROC's first elected vice president to adopt a Western first name. In her interview with TIME Asia Magazine, she said the KMT never thought they would transfer their regime to her on behalf of the freedom fighters.

Lu was a contender for the 2008 presidential election; she announced her candidacy on March 6 and faced Yu Shyi-Kun (former DPP chairman and executive premier), Frank Hsieh (former DPP chairman, former premier, former Kaohsiung mayor), and Su Tseng-Chang (former DPP chair, former premier) for the nomination. After receiving only 6.16% of the votes cast in the DPP primary, Lu withdrew from the race.

Assassination attempt

On March 19, 2004, Lu was shot in the right kneecap during a campaign trip to Tainan. Chen was shot in the abdomen at the same event. Both survived the shooting and left Chi-mei Hospital on the same day. The Pan-Blue Coalition suggested that the shooting was not an assassination attempt but that it was staged to a self-inflicted wound in order to gain sympathy votes. The Chen/Lu ticket won the election on the following day with a 0.228% margin, a figure significant to those who related it to the assassination incident.

Cross-strait relations

In terms of Cross-Strait relations with China, Lu has been more outspoken in favor of Taiwan independence than President Chen Shui-bian, and as such has been more heavily attacked than Chen both by the government of the People's Republic of China as well as by supporters of Chinese reunification. Her remarks have led state newspapers in mainland China to accuse her of provoking "animosity between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits". PRC state media has also labeled Lu as "insane" and a "scum of the earth".

In 2010 Lu visited South Korea and advocated Taiwan's use of what she called "soft power," meaning peaceful economic and political development, as a model for the resolution of international conflicts. In mid-April 2013 speaking at George Washington University, Lu called for the DPP to have a better understanding about Mainland China because Taiwan's future depends on the development on the mainland. She stated that cross-strait relations should be defined as not only a distant relative, but also a near neighbor. And she stressed that there should be no hatred nor war between Taiwan and Mainland China, and both side should pursue peaceful coexistence, industrial cooperation and cultural exchanges.

Speaking at the founding ceremony of Anti-One China Principle Union in Taipei on 29 April 2013, Lu warned on silent annexation of Taiwan into China since the introduction of Anti-Secession Law in 2005 and the gradual erosion of Taiwan's sovereignty. However, she said Taiwan doesn't oppose that there is one China in the world, but Taiwan is not part of China. She criticized ROC President Ma Ying-jeou for making Taiwan becomes more and more dependent on China. She even reiterated her 1996 Consensus to oppose Kuomintang's 1992 Consensus in dealing with the PRC, in which she said Taiwan has been an independent sovereign country after the 1996 ROC presidential election.

Indictment

On September 21, 2007, Vice President Lu was indicted on charges of corruption by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Taiwan. Lu faces charges of embezzlement and of using false receipts to write-off expenses totalling over US$165,000 from a special governmental account. Yu Shyi-Kun was also indicted on the same day and immediately resigned his chairmanship of the Democratic Progressive Party, he promised he would resign if indicted. That same day, DPP member and National Security Office Secretary-General Mark Chen was indicted on corruption charges.