Shu Chin-chiang

In December 2004, Shu was reported as a possible candidate for the TSU chairmanship.[6][7] Later that month, Shu officially declared his candidacy for the party chairmanship.[8] Shu stepped down from his position at the National Cultural Association, where he was replaced by Tchen Yu-chiou, to declare his candidacy for the office.[3]

Though an election was planned,[9] the Taiwan Solidarity Union's central executive committee directly appointed Shu to the chairmanship on 10 January 2005.[10]

In April 2005, Shu visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, incurring much criticism in Taiwan, as the shrine has posts for World War II war criminals.[11] However, Shu said that his visit was not an endorsement of Japanese militarism, but an attempt to memorialize Taiwanese soldiers who had died while serving the Japanese during the era of occupation.[12]

Shu resigned the party chairmanship on 25 December 2006, to take responsibility for the TSU's poor showing in the municipal elections.[13]

In February 2014, Shu and delegates led by Kuomintang Honorary Chairman Lien Chan, visited Beijing for three days, where they met with the head of Taiwan Affairs Office Zhang Zhijun and Communist Party of China General-Secretary Xi Jinping. During the visit, Shu endorsed Lien as a champion for promoting cross-strait dialogue and advised the Democratic Progressive Party to seize this opportunity for change and to drop Taiwanese independence as a core value. His actions were viewed as seriously violating the core values of the TSU, and he was expelled from the party for making the trip to China.[14]

In 2023, Shu became chief executive officer of the New Homeland Think Tank Association, an organization affiliated with the Taiwan People's Party.[15]