Sean Lien or Lien Sheng-wen (;

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, ...

: Liân sìng-bûn; born February 4, 1970) is a member of the Central Standing Committee of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(Taiwan). He is co-founder of Evenstar Capital and he previously served as chairman of the Taipei Smart Card Corporation, the company which operates

EasyCard The EasyCard is a contactless smartcard system operated by the EasyCard Corporation, which was previously named the "Taipei Smart Card Corporation", for payment on the Taipei Metro (also known as "''Taipei MRT''", or "Taipei Rapid Transit Syst ...

Family

Sean Lien is the eldest son of

Lien Fang Yu Lien Fang Yu () born 14 April 1943 in Chongqing as Fang Yu (), is the wife of Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang party from 2000 to 2005. Fang is a former Miss Republic of China. Fang and Lien were married in 1965, the same year that Lien ...

and

Lien Chan Lien Chan (; born 27 August 1936) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1990 to 1993, Premier of the Republic of China from 1993 to 1997, Vice President of the Republic of China from 1996 to 20 ...

, who served as the Chairman of the Kuomintang party and was the Vice President of Taiwan. He is the grandson of

Lien Chen-tung Lien Chen-tung (; 23 April 1904 – 1 December 1986) was a Chinese statesman and politician who was the tenth Republic of China Minister of the Interior. Lien was also the first official county magistrate of Taipei County, a representative of ...

, and the great grandson of Lien Heng. He has a brother and two sisters. He is married to Patty Tsai. According to some sources, he was born in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

; others indicate that he was born in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Education

Lien studied law at

Fu Jen Catholic University Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 at ...

and at

Columbia University School of Law Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

. He was also an Eisenhower Fellow.

Early career

Lien served in a senior management position at GE's Asia Pacific Capital Fund II and as a vice president with an Investment Banking Group in Taipei. He is co-founder and senior advisor to the Hong Kong investment company Evenstar Capital.

Political career

In 2008, Taipei City Mayor

Hau Lung-pin Hau Lung-pin (; born 22 August 1952) is a Taiwanese politician. As a member of the New Party, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1995, and resigned his seat to lead the Environmental Protection Administration in 2001. Hau stepped down f ...

appointed Lien as chairman of Taipei Smart Card Corporation. Lien resigned as Chairman of EasyCard Corporation at the end of 2009, citing health reasons. Assessments of his performance during this brief tenure differ. During the

municipal election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

on 26 November 2010, Lien was shot in the face at close range while stumping for Chen Hung-yuan, a

New Taipei City Council New Taipei City Council () is the city council of New Taipei City, Republic of China. It is now composed of 66 councillors, all recently elected on 24 November 2018 in the local elections. Along with the Kaohsiung City Council, the city counci ...

candidate in the

Yonghe District Yonghe District () is an urban area in the southern part of New Taipei, Taiwan. Yonghe District is the smallest district in New Taipei City. It is primarily a mixed residential and commercial area. With around 38,000 inhabitants per square kilom ...

New Taipei City New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, be ...

. Lien's wound was minor and he recovered quickly. Lien disagrees with Taiwan judiciary's conclusion that he was shot by mistake. On February 24, 2014, Lien announced his campaign for Taipei City mayor

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

; on April 19, 2014, he won the KMT mayoral primary. On November 29, Lien lost the race to independent candidate

Ko Wen-je Ko Wen-je (; born 6 August 1959), also known by his nickname, Ko P (), is a Taiwanese politician and physician. Ko was mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022, and Chairman of the Taiwan People's Party since 2019. Before becoming mayor, he was a docto ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lien, Sean 1970 births Columbia Law School alumni Lien Heng family Living people Kuomintang politicians in Taiwan Shooting survivors Fu Jen Catholic University alumni General Electric people Taiwanese chief executives Taiwanese company founders 20th-century Taiwanese businesspeople 21st-century Taiwanese businesspeople

Family

Education

Early career

Political career

See also

References