Editing Lien Chan (section)

== Political career ==
His official positions included Ambassador to [[El Salvador]] (1975–1976), [[Ministry of Transportation and Communications (Taiwan)|Minister of Transportation and Communications]] (1981–1987), Vice Premier (1987–1988), Foreign Minister (1988–1990) before becoming Governor of [[Taiwan Province]] (1990–1993).<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.tpg.gov.tw/tpg/historychief.php |script-title = zh:歷任首長 |trans-title = Past Chiefs |language = zh-TW |publisher = Taiwan Provincial Gov't |website = tpg.gov.tw |access-date = February 22, 2017 |archive-date = April 8, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190408055815/http://www.tpg.gov.tw/tpg/historychief.php |url-status = dead }}</ref> In 1993 he was appointed [[Premier of the Republic of China]]. In 1996, [[Lee Teng-hui]] selected him as [[running mate]] in the presidential election. Lee and Lien won the election for the presidency and the vice-presidency respectively. Before becoming Chairman of the KMT, he was Vice Chairman (1993–2000) and a member of the Central Committee (1984–2000).

During his term in office, Lien was credited for having established National Health Insurance, which is the national health insurance policy for all citizens of the Republic of China. It ranks as one of the best national health plans in the world and modeled by other nations who seek to have a national health coverage for other citizens. He spearheaded the constructions of Cross-Island Highway (橫貫公路), a series of highways that connected the eastern side of the island to the western side of the island. Taiwan is dominated by the Central Mountain Range which cordons off the east from the west. In order to go to the eastern side from the western side, one had to circle the island to reach their destinations before the highways were constructed. After Lien constructed these highways, traffic back-and-forth between the east and west of the island was much more efficient. He also began the reconstruction to the military dependents' villages (眷村) which were temporary shelters designated for the military personnel and their families when the Kuomintang (KMT) first moved to Taiwan. There are over 879 of these military dependents' villages which housing nearly 100,000 households within. Most of this housing was temporary shelter and were constructed during the period between 1945 and 1950s to house the military personnel as the KMT retreated to Taiwan. Half a century later when it became clear that reunification with mainland China under the terms of the Republic of China would not be possible, it became obvious that the housing for the military personnel would have to be reconstructed.

Throughout Lien's term as Foreign Minister and through his premiership, about 30 countries had diplomatic relations with Republic of China (Taiwan), this was the highest number of diplomatic relations since Republic of China was expelled from the United Nations in 1972 and severed diplomatic relations with the United States in 1976. Lien also established diplomatic relations with Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Grenada, Belize, Republic of Guinea-Bissau and reestablished diplomatic relations with Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Nicaragua.

Lien also established the foundations for the Internet in Taiwan via research centers established under the National Science Council (國家科學委員會). Furthermore, he liberalized the telecommunications network which allowed for multiple players to compete and ushered in the mobile service era in the telecommunications sector. He also revised and deregulated the regulation on cable television sector that allowed for multiple players in the television and cable sectors. These policies made Taiwan the most liberal area in Asia for media.

For the purpose of developing Taiwan as an economic hub in the Asia-Pacific, Lien espoused a platform called the "Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center" because Taiwan has two natural deep water harbors, one is Keelung and second one is Kaohsiung, shipments from all over the world would transport and transfer in these harbors before heading to Japan, Korea, China or Southeast Asia. However, due to Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) "two-state solution" (兩國論), a theory advocated for China and Taiwan to engage in a special "state to state relationship", mainland China was deeply angered, therefore Taiwan became increasingly marginalized.

Lien took an active role as a representative of [[Lee Teng-hui]] in quasi-official diplomacy in the mid-1990s. One of the greatest moments of his career is his 1995 meeting with [[Václav Havel]], in which Lien likened the democratic reforms of the Lee Teng-hui administration as being similar to the [[Velvet Revolution]].

After the defeat of the KMT in 2000, Lien assume the leadership of the KMT. As the Chairman of the KMT, Lien vowed to learn from his loss and remake the KMT party. He held forums to discuss erasing the KMT's image as a corrupt institution and Lien promised to give up property seized by the KMT after the Japanese exodus.

The Pan-Blue reunited in the election of 2004 with Lien and Soong running on a combined ticket against DPP's Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu. Chen Shui-bian was the incumbent and was trailing 13% behind in the polls before ballot day. Then, out of nowhere came two bullets, one barely grazing Chen's belly and another one grazing Annette Lu's knee. Immediately the DPP-control government suspended all election activities and prohibited all servicemen, policeman and security workers to return home to vote. The servicemen are typically Pan-Blue voters and number of service men affected was roughly 350,000. The DPP Secretary General of the President's office Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) immediately came out on media to announce that there was an assassination attempt on the DPP candidates Chen and Lu and accused the KMT of collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party to assassinate Taiwan's president. Lien lost that election by 0.228% margin, a mere 29,518 votes out of a total of 12,914,422 (12 million nine hundred and fourteen thousand four hundred and twenty two) ballots cast. Both Chen and Lu were released from the hospital on the same day and went to vote on the next day. Neither one had life-threatening injury nor did they lose consciousness or had a surgery. Rather, alleged assassin Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄) was killed and his body was found ten days later ditched into a pond near where he lives. His body was formally dressed in suite and tie and entangled in a fishnet.

This incident sparked mass riots and controversy because it was believed that the shooting was staged in order to gain sympathy votes for Chen and Lu who won by a sliver of a margin. Hence the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee was established.

On January 31, 2008, the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee concluded its investigation into the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), and raised questions about whether the shooting was a staged event. "We have compared all of the evidence and clues through interviews and reconstructed the scene. Although the truth of the event remains unclear, the "truth" that government publicized and the evidence don't match," committee convener Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told reporters. The report also suggested that Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), whom the authorities identified as the shooter, was murdered instead of committing suicide when he was found dead 10 days after the incident.

In 2005, after Ma was elected as KMT chairman to succeed Lien, the KMT Central Committee offered the title of "Chairman Emeritus" (Honorary Chairman) to Lien.

In December 2010, Lien was awarded the [[Confucius Peace Prize]] in China, which was instituted as a reaction to the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] awarded to [[Liu Xiaobo]]. Lien's office said to the ''Taipei Times'', "We've never heard of such an award and of course Mr Lien has no plans to accept it."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2010/12/09/2003490461 |title=Lien office denies hearing of award |newspaper=[[Taipei Times]] |date=December 26, 2012 |access-date=December 11, 2010 |archive-date=December 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212202059/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2010/12/09/2003490461 |url-status=live }}</ref>