  chen li-an (; born 22 june 1937 in qingtian, zhejiang), sometimes spelled chen lu-an, is an electrical engineer, mathematician and former taiwanese politician. ==early life== the son of former vice president chen tsyr-shiou, he earned his masters' and ph.d. in mathematics from new york university. he had a close friendship with wang yung-ching, a respected businessman. wang later appointed chen the headmaster of the private ming-chi technology college which wang owned; chen held the position from july 1970 to february 1972. ==political career== chen served as minister of economic affairs from 1988 to 1990, minister of national defense from 1990 to 1993, and president of the control yuan from 1993 to 1995. he resigned his post, left the kuomintang, and declared his candidacy for the presidency in september 1995 to express his open criticism of lee teng-hui's mainland policy. lin yang-kang originally considered chen as his vice-presidential running-mate in the roc presidential election, 1996. however, chen chose to run for president himself (with wang ching-feng as his vice-presidential candidate). as chen is a devoted convert to tibetan buddhism (he is ethnically han), he his campaign tour of the island featured a strong spiritual theme, projecting an image that some commented to be like an "ascetic monk". after losing his bid in the presidential election with the lowest vote among the four candidates, chen announced that he would retire from politics. {| class=wikitable style=text-align:left |- ! colspan=5|1996 republic of china presidential election result |- ! president candidate ! vice president candidate ! party ! votes ! % |- | lee teng-hui | lien chan | 25px kuomintang |align=right|5,813,699 |align=right|54.0 |- | peng ming-min | frank hsieh |  |align=right|2,274,586 |align=right|21.1 |- | lin yang-kang | hau pei-tsun |  |align=right|1,603,790 |align=right|14.9 |- | chen li-an | wang ching-feng |  |align=right|1,074,044 |align=right|9.9 |- |colspan=3|invalid/blank votes||align=right|117,160|| |- |colspan=3|total||align=right|10,883,279||align=right|100 |} later, as part of his efforts to promote tibetan buddhism, he founded the hwa-yu foundation (åè²åºéæ), of which he serves as president and his eldest son, chen yu-ting (é³å®å»·), serves as director. chen also organized charities to financially assist ethnic minorities in mainland china and nepal. from 199
1937_births Affiliated_Senior_High_School_of_National_Taiwan_Normal_University_alumni Independent_presidential_candidates_of_Taiwan Kuomintang_politicians_in_Taiwan Living_people New_York_University_alumni Politicians_from_Lishui Republic_of_China_politicians_from_Zhejiang Taiwanese_Ministers_of_Defense Taiwanese_Ministers_of_Economic_Affairs