Apollo Chen

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen (陳).

Apollo Chen, also known as Chen Shei-saint (Chinese: 陳學聖; pinyin: Chén Xuéshèng; born 28 September 1957) is a Taiwanese journalist and politician.

Apollo Chen Chen Shei-saint MLY
陳學聖
Chen in July 2016
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office 1 February 2012 – 1 February 2020
Preceded by	Huang Jen-shu
Succeeded by	Lu Ming-che
Constituency	Taoyuan 3rd
In office 1 February 1999 – 31 January 2005
Constituency	Taipei 2nd
Personal details
Born	(1957-09-28) 28 September 1957 (age 67) Taipei, Taiwan
Political party	Kuomintang
Education	National Taiwan University (BA) Tamkang University (MA)

Education and early career

Born in Taipei, Chen attended Jianguo High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from National Taiwan University, followed by a master's in Chinese studies at Tamkang University. He wrote for the China Daily News and China Times and was also a television anchor on Asia Television.^[1]

Political career

Chen served on the Taipei City Council from 1991 to 1998.^[2][3] His first stint in the Legislative Yuan began the next year and lasted until 2005. Chen was the spokesman of Lien Chan's 2000 presidential campaign.^[4][5] In between legislative stints, he was the director of the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau.^[6][7][8] Chen, backed by the Kuomintang,^[9] ran for the legislature again in the Taoyuan County by-election of 2010, losing to Huang Jen-shu [zh] by approximately 3,000 votes.^[10][11] He returned to the legislature in 2012. In 2014, Chen was suspended from the Kuomintang for casting a vote against the Land Administration Agent Act.^[12] However, the censure did not prevent him from running for reelection in 2016, which he won.^[13] It was initially reported that Chen had defeated Hsu Ching-wen [zh] by 390 votes.^[14][15] A recount by the Taoyuan District Court revealed that Chen had won by 389 votes.^[16][17]

2016 KMT chairmanship election

His party's presidential candidate, Eric Chu, was not successful and subsequently resigned the KMT chairmanship. Chen declared his interest in the position a few days after Chu's resignation was finalized.^[18][19] On 22 February, Chen submitted a petition of 24,179 signatures to the party committee responsible for overseeing elections.^[20] The party confirmed 10,710 of those signatures, validating his candidacy.^[21] Chen finished fourth in the election, which was won by Hung Hsiu-chu.^[22]

2016 Kuomintang chairmanship election
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage	Result
1	Hung Hsiu-chu	Kuomintang	78,829	56.16%
2	Huang Min-hui	Kuomintang	46,341	33.02%
3	Lee Hsin	Kuomintang	7,604	5.42%
4	Apollo Chen	Kuomintang	6,784	4.83%
Total votes			337,351
Turnout			41.61%

2018 Taoyuan mayor election

In March 2018, the Kuomintang announced that Chen had defeated Lu Ming-che and Yang Li-huan [zh] in a primary held to decide the party's candidate in the Taoyuan mayoral election.^[23]

2018 Kuomintang Taoyuan City mayoral primary results
Candidates	Place	Results
Apollo Chen	Nominated	35.689%
Lu Ming-zhe	2nd	33.067%
Yang Li-huan	3rd	31.245%

2018 Taoyuan mayor election result

2018 Taoyuan City mayoral results[24]
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Zhu Mei-xue (朱梅雪)	Independent	18,200	1.76%
2	Apollo Chen	Kuomintang	407,234	39.42%
3	Yang Li-huan (楊麗環)	Independent	51,518	4.99%
4	Wu Fu-tong (吳富彤)	Independent	3,867	0.37%
5	Cheng Wen-tsan	Democratic Progressive Party	552,330	53.46%
Total voters			1,732,591
Valid votes			1,033,149
Invalid votes
Voter turnout			59.63%