Who is Lin Cheng-chieh?

If you haven't seen Levitator's post on Lin Cheng-chieh--the man who beat another man on a live political talk show--be sure to check it out. It's really some amazing investigative journalism and it explains a lot about Lin's actions and his past:

The 54-year-old Lin became involved in the anti-KMT tangwai movement in the 1970s and later served as a DPP legislator and deputy mayor of Hsinchu City. Lin left the DPP in the early 1990s and faded out of local politics. He was said to be an opponent of Taiwan independence even back then. This much is well known.

Now comes the interesting part.

Lin was a businessman in Shanghai until 2005, when for some reason he rediscovered his passion for politics. He returned to Taiwan and founded a political party called the Grand Alliance for the Defense of China (保衛中華大同盟).

In Sep-Oct 2005, Lin’s party joined forces with Banboo Union gang leader Chang An-le (nicknamed White Wolf). By different accounts, they either renamed Lin’s party or set up another party called the China Unification Promotion Party or CUPP (中華統一促進黨). Chang is the party’s CEO. Read the whole post