Chiu Tai-san is a Taiwanese lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2004. He then served the Mainland Affairs Council as a vice chairman, and later as deputy mayor of Kaohsiung under Chen Chu. After leaving politics for a teaching position, Chiu was named the deputy mayor of Taoyuan under Cheng Wen-tsan in 2014. He resigned in 2016, and was appointed the Minister of Justice later that year. Chiu stepped down from the justice ministry in 2018, and served on the National Security Council until 2019.
Legal career
Chiu studied law at National Taiwan University and worked as a prosecutor for the district courts of Tainan and Hsinchiu.
Political career
A member of the Democratic Progressive Party's New Tide faction, Chiu began his political career as a secretary for Taichung County Magistrate Liao Yung-lai. He was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a representative of Taichung County in the 1998 elections. Reelected in 2001, Chiu stepped down in the middle of his term on 19 May 2004 to become the first vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council. He left the MAC in March 2005 and declared his intention to run for the Taichung County magistracy. Chiu was replaced at the MAC by. Chiu was challenged in a party primary by National Assemblyman Lin Feng-hsi. Chiu defeated Lin in first round of the primary, which consisted of telephone surveys run by three separate different companies. Lin claimed that one of the three polls had been subject to a computer hardware error and should be redone. Chiu was eventually reconfirmed as the DPP candidate, and lost the December election to incumbent Huang Chung-sheng. Following the defeat, Chiu was named a deputy mayor of Kaohsiung shortly before Chen Chu took office as mayor in December 2006. After leaving the Kaohsiung City Government, Chiu taught at Asia University, eventually leading its financial and economic law department. He launched another bid for the Taichung County magistracy in 2010, and again lost to Huang Chung-sheng. The Democratic Progressive Party considered nominating him as a candidate for a legislative seat in the 2012 elections. However, Chiu did not return to public service until 2014, when Cheng Wen-tsan appointed him deputy mayor of Taoyuan. In March 2016, Chiu resigned his Taoyuan City Government position to serve as a policy advisor to president-elect Tsai Ing-wen. The next month, Chiu was named the Minister of Justice in Lin Chuan's incoming cabinet. He took office on 20 May 2016. Shortly after assuming his post as Minister of Justice, Chiu stated that Taiwan would maintain the death penalty. Chiu supported legislator Tsai Yi-yu's August 2016 proposal to eliminate the Special Investigation Division. Other attempts at reform include a victims' protection initiative and setting up a legal research department to immediately send contentious court cases directly to the Supreme Court. In February 2017, Chiu announced that the general public would be able to participate in committees convened to review the work of prosecutors. He left office in July 2018, and was named to the National Security Council. Chiu resigned from the National Security Council on 2 April 2019, shortly after the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office charged him with influence peddling. In December 2019, Chiu was appointed to lead a Democratic Progressive Party task force convened to combat electoral fraud during the January 2020 elections.
