Path to Power
	Chen Shui-bian's re-election as President is yet another dramatic turn in a life marked by political tumult and family tragedy

Posted Monday, March 22, 2004; 21:00 HKT
1950 Chen is born in Tainan county in Taiwan's underdeveloped south, the son of farmers

1973 He passes the bar exam with flying colors at National Taiwan University, then starts a practice, specializing in maritime law

1980 As Taiwan's democracy movement stirs, Chen defends one of eight leaders of an anti-Kuomintang (KMT) protest who are charged with plotting to overthrow the government. Chen's client is convicted by the military court, but the case electrifies the nascent opposition movement

1981 Following the trial, Chen enters politics, and wins a seat on the Taipei city council

1985 Chen, now serving as the publisher of a political magazine, is sentenced to eight months in prison in a libel case brought against the publication by a KMT official

1985 Chen's high school sweetheart and wife, Wu Shu-chen, is hit by a truck and paralyzed from the waist down. Chen claims it was a deliberate assault by his political opponents and that he was the intended victim. Police rule the incident an accident

1986 While Chen starts his jail term, his wife wins election to parliament

1987 After his release, Chen joins the newly formed opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)

1989 Chen wins a seat in parliament, where he focuses on defense issues

1994 Elected Taipei's first non-KMT mayor in a generation, Chen pushes through reforms, shutters massage parlors and reduces crime. He loses a re-election bid against a more united opposition in 1998, and decides to run for the presidency on a platform stressing Taiwan's right to self-determination

2000 China warns voters in Taiwan against "playing with fire" by electing Chen President. The threat backfires: Chen wins, ending more than 50 years of KMT rule, and pledges to make Taiwan more democratic and open. Beijing spurns Chen's conciliatory overtures, and continues to regard him with suspicion

2002 Chen outrages China by defining the status quo between both sides as "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait"

2003 Chen comes under fire from China, foreign allies like the U.S., and opponents at home after proposing national referendums on Taiwan's relations with China and calling for a rewriting of the island's constitution

March 2004 Chen and his Vice President survive an assassination attempt on the eve of the presidential election. The next day Chen is declared the electoral winner, but the opposition demands a recount Source: TIME Research

	What Taiwan Wants [March 9, 2004] Taiwan's presidential election might prove to be a perilous watershed in its relationship with China. Can Beijing rein in the renegade? Cross-Strait Strains [March 9, 2004] Relations between Taiwan and China have been tense for more than half a century Trade Links [March 9, 2004] Dealing with China's economic embrace Strait Talking [February 23, 2004] In an exclusive interview, President Chen Shui-bian rejects the mainland's "one China" policy More Related Items | Search all issues of TIME Magazine