The election result is not a victory that belongs to me or my party.

Chen seized the opportunity approached her and shook her hands while Chen's aide produced a camera immediately for an impromptu photo-op. Furthermore it is widely believed in Taiwan that some of these gestures were essentially forced on him again by pressure from the United States and the PRC. With Chen's resignation and Frank Hsieh's ascension as the party's new chairman the DPP has changed chairmen seven times since Chen took office in 2000.

Supporters have insisted that his trial was unfair and politically motivated retribution by the Kuomintang for his years in power. In 2004 he won reelection by a narrow margin after surviving a shooting while campaigning the day before the election. A lawyer Chen entered politics in 1980 during the Kaohsiung Incident as a member of the Tangwai movement and was elected to the Taipei City Council in 1981.