Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, is in the center of media attention these days. A KMT delegation headed by Lien Tuesday kicked off an eight-day "journey of peace" to the mainland at the invitation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao.

Lien was born in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, in August 1936. He was brought up in a rich family in Tainan, Taiwan. His ancestral home is Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, east China.

His name was given by his grandfather, a noted reformer, when China was under the threat of Japanese invasion. It means "fighting ceaselessly."

Lien's father held important posts in the KMT government, including "head of the construction department of Taiwan Province" and "interior minister" of the Taiwan authorities.

In 1946, in the fourth year of his primary school education, Lien left the mainland for Taiwan with his mother.

He enrolled in the political science department of the National Taiwan University in 1953 and then University of Chicago of the United States in 1959. He obtained a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago in 1965.

He taught in US universities in 1966 and 1967 and returned to National Taiwan University in 1968 to serve as chairman of the Department of Political Science and of Graduate Institute of Political Science.

Lien was appointed "ambassador" to El Salvador in June 1975.

His subsequent posts included director of Department of Youth Affairs of the KMT Central Committee, "chairman of National Youth Commission of Executive Yuan," "minister of Transportation and Communications," "vice premier of Executive Yuan," "minister of Foreign Affairs" and "governor" of Taiwan Province.

He was elected vice-chairman of the KMT in 1993 and assumed the post "premier of Executive Yuan" in the same year. He was elected "vice-president" of Taiwan in 1996 and for a period served concurrently as "premier of Executive Yuan."

He lost Taiwan's "presidential election" in March 2000 as the KMT candidate.

He was elected KMT chairman after former chairman Lee Teng-hui was forced to resign for his negative role in the presidential election in 2000 and reelected KMT chairman in 2001, in both elections supported by more than 90 percent of the voters.

As KMT chairman, Lien reformed the party's operational mechanism and actively pushed forward cooperation with the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party to form the Pan-Blue Alliance.

In March 2004, Lien partnered with PFP Chairman James Soong to run for president, losing by a small margin. In December's "legislative election" of the same year, the Pan-Blue Alliance won the majority.

Lien identifies himself with the 1992 Consensus reached in cross-Straits negotiations that adheres to the one-China principle.

He opposes "Taiwanese independence," advocates developing cross-Straits relations and has worked for peace across the Taiwan Straits.

During his tenure, the KMT successfully pushed forward the cross-Straits Spring Festival chartered flights for Taiwan businessmen on the mainland and sent a KMT delegation to visit the mainland around the end of March. After the successful visit, Lien decided to accept the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and Hu to visit the mainland as KMT chairman.

Lien's wife Lien Fang-yu was born in a university professor's family in Taiwan. The Liens have two sons and two daughters.

Source: Xinhua