Chen Chi-mai

Chen Chi-mai (Chinese: 陳其邁; pinyin: Chén Qímài; Wade–Giles: Ch'ên Ch'i-mai; born December 23, 1964) is a Taiwanese politician and member of the Legislative Yuan. He is also currently the spokesperson of the Democratic Progressive Party and the chief executive officer of its Policy Research and Coordinating Committee. A physician from Keelung, Chen started his political career by becoming member of the Legislative Yuan in 1996 and served as legislator for almost eight years before becoming the spokesperson of the Executive Yuan.

In 2005, Chen succeeded to the mayoralty of Kaohsiung after then-mayor Frank Hsieh's appointment as premier. Chen became the Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office in 2007 and served until the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou. In January 2019, Chen was appointed by President Tsai Ing-wen as Vice Premier of the Republic of China.

Chen Chi-mai was born in Keelung City, Taiwan, on December 23, 1964. He is the son of Chen Che-nan, who is also a politician and was also a Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office before Chen took office in 2007.

Chen studied medicine at the Chung Shan Medical University in Taichung, where he earned his MB degree in 1991. He got his MS degree in preventive medicine at the National Taiwan University in 1994. He practiced medicine at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (長庚紀念醫院) for about three years and became a lecturer at the Taipei Medical University in 1996.

Chen made his early entry into public affairs when he, as a student, served as an assistant to his father, a legislator at the time.

A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chen was elected legislator three times serving from 1996 to 2004. During his term, he became the secretary-general of the Justice Alliance faction of the DPP in 1998 and the legislative caucus leader in 1999. He also became members of various committees within the Legislative Yuan, including the Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, National Defense, and Transportation Committees.

Before the DPP became the ruling party, Chen suggested that then-incumbent magistrate of Taoyuan County Annette Lu would be a better choice for Chen Shui-bian's presidential running mate than any other party member. Lu was eventually selected as his running mate.

After Shui-bian's successful presidential campaign, Chen Chi-mai, as a leader of the Justice Alliance faction, supported the proposal of another member to revise the pro-independence guideline. Although many party members had similar views, the proposal was sent back to the party's policy research department for review.

In 2004, Chen was appointed a Minister without Portfolio and spokesperson of the Executive Yuan. Soon after, another proposal to modify pro-independence guidelines was created. Several DPP legislators believed that the change of the national title from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan," which is one of the ultimate goals of Taiwan's desinicization campaign and localization movement, was not necessary. Chen also supported the proposal. The proposal was documented in an essay called New Culture Discourse, drafted by DPP legislator Lee Wen-chung of the New Tide faction. After the essay was leaked to the media, many politicians, including Chen, denied being involved in drafting the document. The document was proved too controversial and was attacked within the party as a result, although some members believed that it was only based on the 1999 Resolution on Taiwan's Future.

In January 2005, following the death of former CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, Chen represented the Taiwanese cabinet in delivering a message to the Chinese government. In his address, Chen urged China's leaders to pursue democratization. Chen stated that Beijing should "face the truth about Tiananmen Square... We urge the Chinese government to learn from Mr. Zhao's tolerance and to push for democratic reforms."

Later in January 2005, Chen Chi-mai was nominated to serve as acting mayor of Kaohsiung by premier-designate Frank Hsieh.

After becoming the mayor of Kaohsiung, Chen sought to continue construction of the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT), a major construction started during Frank Hsieh's mayoral term. The Red Line of the system is opened, and the Orange Line was scheduled to be opened in August 2008.

Chen also worked to turn Kaohsiung into the a film location hub by encouraging filmmakers to shoot their films in the port city. He offered filmmakers, such as Tsai Ming-liang, various incentives for their award-winning films. He presented a NT$10 million (approx. US$323 thousand) prize to Tsai for his film The Wayward Cloud. Tsai in returned said he will soon shoot a new film in Kaohsiung and praised the city's efforts to develop Kaohsiung into an international city.

On July 25, 2005, Kaohsiung officially became the host city of World Games 2009, which will be the largest international sports event hosted in Taiwan, after Chen received the flag of the World Games. Chen later announced the construction of a world-class stadium built for the event.

In August 2005, Thai workers rioted over the draconian treatment they received as foreign workers. These workers lived in poor conditions and had limited freedom. The Chen administration vowed to take action on August 25. Chen apologized to the public for the social turmoil caused by the incident and offered to resign three times. Then-premier Frank Hsieh authorized Chen's resignation on September 12, and replaced him with former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan.

After a temporary period of research at the London School of Economics in England, Chen was appointed the Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office in February 2007. His appointment drew mixed reactions, with the support from the DPP legislative caucus and opposition from the Kuomintang legislative caucus. Chen served with Lin Chia-lung, former director of the Government Information Office.

After the DPP chairmanship election in May 2008, chairwoman-elect Tsai Ing-wen announced the appointment of Chen as the deputy secretary-general of the party. He held the position with Cho Jung-tai until 2009. Chen is now concurrently serving as both the spokesperson of the Democratic Progressive Party and the chief executive officer of the party's Policy Research and Coordinating Committee since May 2011.

In the 2012 legislative elections, Chen was placed on the DPP electoral list, from which 13 members were elected based on the number of votes the DPP received. Being the eighth member on the list, Chen returned to the Legislative Yuan once again as a legislator in February 2012. He was reelected via proportional representation in 2016. Chen faced fellow lawmakers Chao Tien-lin, Lin Tai-hua, and Kuan Bi-ling in a Kaohsiung mayoral primary held in March 2018, and was named the Democratic Progressive Party candidate for the mayoralty. On November 24, 2018, he was defeated by Han Kuo-yu, the Kuomintang nominee of Mayoral Election, by more than 150 thousand votes, becoming the first Democratic Progressive Party nominee losing the Kaohsiung local election since 2010 when the city of Kaohsiung and Kaohsiung County were combined to become one of the Special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan) . His defeat also marked the end of 20-year Democratic Progressive Party governance in the old city area of Kaohsiung and its 33-year governance in the old Kaohsiung County area.

2018 Kaohsiung City mayoral results
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
2	Chen Chi-mai	Democratic Progressive Party	742,239	44.80%
Total voters			2,281,338
Valid votes			1,656,907
Invalid votes
Voter turnout			72.63%

Chen has a master's degree in public health from National Taiwan Universityand has been quoted to say that Taiwan was “the earliest country to activate epidemic prevention measures against this disease.". Chen has proposed to use technology including mobile phone data for contact tracing and containment, and is the first author of a paper that describes how passengers of the COVID-19 stricken cruise ship Princess Diamond were traced using mobile phone data, and how their contacts were alerted through textmessaging .

Chen is married and has a son and daughter.

He is a Master Scuba Diver.