Lee Chiao-ju (; born 24 June 1957) is a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

politician. She is a member of the

Kaohsiung City Council Kaohsiung City Council () is the city council of Kaohsiung City, Republic of China. It is currently composed of 65 councilors, each serving a four-year term, elected using the single non-transferable vote system. Speaker and deputy speaker of ...

for the constituencies of

Gushan District Gushan District () is district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Administrative divisions The district consists of Gufeng, Xiongfeng, Qianfeng, Guangrong, Minzu, Neiwei, Jianguo, Zhongzheng, Zijiang, Longjing, Zhengde, Pinghe, Minjiang, Housheng, Longzi, ...

, Yancheng District, and

Cijin District Cijin District (; Hokkien POJ: ''Kî-tin-khu'') is a district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, covering Cijin Island () and islands in the South China Sea. It is the second smallest district in Kaohsiung City after Yancheng District, with an area of ...

Political policies

In a 2012 district council meeting, Lee proposed that public servants should be assessed by their

marital status Civil status, or marital status, are the distinct options that describe a person's relationship with a significant other. ''Married'', ''single'', ''divorced'', and ''widowed'' are examples of civil status. ''Civil status'' and ''marital status ...

and whether they have children. She suggested banning single men or women older than 30 years old from running for office, allegedly as a means to address Taiwan's low birth rate. Lee's suggestion was immediately dismissed by Mayor

Chen Chu Chen Chu or Kiku Chen (; born 10 June 1950) is the current President of the Control Yuan and Chair of the National Human Rights Commission. Before assuming her current post, Chen had served as Secretary-General to the President from 2018 to ...

in the meeting, with Chen pointing out that the government must respect

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

. The incident triggered heated debates in internet chatrooms as to the merits of having children, whilst some individuals called for Lee's dismissal from the

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. However, Lee defended her proposal, saying that, "Those with such selfish ideas as not wanting to get married and not wanting to have children should shoulder some social responsibility." Lee has supported regional measures to limit the number of

Mainland Chinese Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in or have recently emigrated from mainland China, defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) except for Hong Kong ( SAR of the PRC), Macau (SAR of the PRC), ...

tourists to the Sizihwan Scenic Area after complaints by citizens.

Bribery charges

In 2003, accusations were made that 34 members of the City Council had accepted NT$5 million each from the

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), founder of An Feng Steel, to vote for him in the 2002 election. 24 councillors were convicted, but Lee was found not guilty by a district court. In early 2004, the court rejected the prosecution's appeal against Lee's sentence, whilst seven other councillors were forced to leave their jobs. In a 2008 court case, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office alleged that members of the council had taken bribes. This prompted an investigation, which resulted in the prosecution charging Lee and 22 other city council members with corruption in April 2011. The charges focussed on the "assistance fees" that council members had billed people for between 2002-2008 and then not declared. In 2015, the Kaohsiung branch of Taiwan's High Court ruled that the council members had technically accepted bribes and, meanwhile, had attempted to pervert the course of justice. All members received different sentences, with Lee given 1 year and 10 months; the sentence could be exchanged for a fine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Chiao-ju Living people 1957 births Kaohsiung City Councilors 21st-century Taiwanese women politicians 21st-century Taiwanese politicians Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Pingtung County Democratic Progressive Party (Taiwan) politicians Women local politicians in Taiwan National Sun Yat-sen University alumni