Qualla: March 19 Shooting Incident

March 19 Shooting Incident: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 1:45 in the afternoon on March 19, 2004, a bullet pierced the windshield of an open Jeep moving through a crowded Tainan street. It grazed the stomach of President Chen Shui-bian, leaving an 11-centimeter flesh wound. A second shot struck Vice President Annette Lu in the knee. Neither injury was life-threatening. Both were released from Chi-Mei Hospital the same day. The next morning, Chen cast his vote in the presidential election he would win by a margin of 0.2 percent. The shooting, the investigation, and the theories that followed would divide Taiwan more deeply than any election could.

March 19 Shooting Incident: A Nation Splits in Two

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Taiwan in 2004 was already polarized between the Pan-Green coalition, which favored a distinct Taiwanese identity, and the Pan-Blue coalition, which maintained closer ties to mainland Chinese heritage. President Chen's Democratic Progressive Party represented the former; his chal...

March 19 Shooting Incident: Forensics and Frustration

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The investigation that followed satisfied almost no one. Forensic scientist Henry Lee, renowned for his work on major American criminal cases, submitted a 130-page report concluding the shooting was not a professional political assassination, because a more powerful weapon than a...

March 19 Shooting Incident: The Dead Suspects

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In March 2005, Taiwanese police named two suspects: Chen Yi-hsiung and Huang Hung-Ren. Both were already dead. Chen Yi-hsiung had been found drowned in Anping Harbor on March 28, 2004, nine days after the shooting. He matched a figure caught on security footage near the scene, th...

March 19 Shooting Incident: Unresolved

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The March 19 incident remains one of Taiwan's most debated political events. Lien Chan publicly expressed disbelief in the official findings. Vice President Lu herself later called for renewed investigation, pointing toward Beijing. The incident was dramatized in a 2019 film dire...