Chiu Hsien-chih

Chiu was born on 29 April 1976,[1][2] and was raised in Zhuqi, Chiayi County, near Fengchih Lake.[3][4] His mother was a factory worker and his father was a teacher.[4] After Chiu completed his Bachelor and Master of Laws degrees at National Taipei University, he lived in Germany for five years, where he completed a second LLM at Heidelberg University.[3][5] Chiu returned to Taiwan in 2010, without completing Heidelberg's Doktor der Rechtswissenschaft program.[3][5] He and his wife Huang Wan-ting moved to Huang's native Hsinchu, where the couple raised two children.[3][6]

After the death of Hung Chung-chiu, Hung's family hired Chiu as legal counsel.[7][8] He remained the Hung family's legal representative until the conclusion of the case, an appeal heard in June 2017.[9] During the Sunflower Student Movement, Chiu served as spokesman for a group of over three hundred lawyers that pledged legal aid to protesters.[10] Chiu also represented Liu Yen-kuo in a murder case dating to 1997 until Liu's execution on 29 April 2014, Chiu's birthday.[1][11] Chiu worked with fellow lawyer Tseng Wei-kai on the Hualon Textile workers' compensation case.[12] Chiu often offered legal commentary in his capacity as chairman of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.[13][14][15] In 2015, Chiu was present at an Anti-Black Box Curriculum Movement demonstration to offer legal assistance.[16] The next year, Chiu represented music teacher Hsiao Hsiao-ling in a wrongful termination lawsuit.[17][18] After Chiu contested the 2016 legislative elections as a New Power Party candidate, the party retained him for its legal team.[19] Chiu has since taken on cases relating to public safety.[20]

Lawyers Chiu, Tseng, Liu Chi-wei, and Essen Lee were featured in a 2016 documentary directed by James Su titled Fight For Justice.[21][22] In December 2017, Chiu published his first book in the Chinese language, Stand By You, about several of the legal cases he had worked up to that point in time.[23]

Chiu joined the New Power Party (NPP) upon its founding in 2015.[24] In February of that year, Chiu and Hu Po-yen became the first two people to represent the party as legislative candidates.[25][26][27] Chiu faced incumbent lawmaker Lu Hsueh-chang in the Hsinchu district.[25] The New Power Party attempted to ally itself with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP),[28] but Chiu was critical of Ker Chien-ming,[29] the DPP's candidate in Hsinchu, and refused to abandon his bid for office to support Ker's.[30] Chiu's main point of contention with Ker centered on political transparency within the legislature.[31] In October 2015, Chiu claimed that Ker had not responded to offers for the two candidates to debate each other before integration polling started.[32] With no deal in place to conduct integration polling,[33] Chiu formally registered his legislative candidacy by the November 2015 deadline.[34] Chiu's campaign partnered with that of Hu Po-yen, Hung Tzu-yung, Ko Shao-chen, and Freddy Lim, winning early support from Lin Yi-hsiung.[35] Chiu's campaign team was led by Chen Wei-ting, a leader of the Sunflower Movement.[36] Other Sunflower activists, such as Lin Fei-fan and Dennis Wei, also contributed to Chiu's campaign.[37][38][39] During the campaign, Chiu spoke in support of legislative reform,[40] and sharply criticized the scheduled Ma–Xi meeting.[41][42] After Chiu Hsien-chih lost the election to Ker Chien-ming,[43] he was named to a NPP task force on legislative reform.[44] In April 2016, the New Power Party opened its inaugural local office in Hsinchu, and named Chiu its first director.[45] In February 2019, Chiu contested an open seat on the New Power Party's executive committee and was subsequently elected party chairman, succeeding Huang Kuo-chang.[46][47] Chiu resigned the party leadership on 12 August 2019,[48] soon after Freddy Lim left the party, and Kawlo Iyun Pacidal's membership was suspended.[49][50] Following the departure of Hung Tzu-yung from the party, the NPP continued attempts to convince Chiu to return as chair.[51] Chiu refused to resume the chairmanship, and stated that either Hsu Yung-ming or Tseng Wei-kai should run for the position.[52] In November 2019, Chiu accepted a nomination from the New Power Party to contest the 2020 election as an at-large legislative candidate. He was ranked second on the NPP party list.[53] The New Power Party won over seven percent of the party list vote, allowing three at-large legislative candidates to take office.[54] Within the Tenth Legislative Yuan, Chiu served as New Power Party caucus whip.[55] On 1 August 2020, Chiu was named acting NPP chairman following Hsu Yung-ming's suspension from the post.[56] Chiu and all members of the New Power Party's executive committee resigned their positions on 5 August,[57] and the succeeding committee elected Kao Yu-ting to replace Chiu on 29 August.[58][59]