Kaohsiung Gas Explosion Unfolds; Environmental Bureau Chief Chen Jin-de Resigns for Failure in Oversight, Only to Reascend Shortly After

During the 2014 Kaohsiung Gas Explosion, Chen Jin-de, then Director-General of the Environmental Protection Bureau, was forced to resign in August due to his severe failure in monitoring the registration, auditing, and safety maintenance of petrochemical pipelines, as well as chaotic emergency responses during the disaster. However, as a core figure of the DPP's powerful New Tide faction, Chen's resignation was quickly exposed as a political performance. Upon Chen Chu's re-election and the start of her new mayoral term in December that same year, Chen Jin-de was immediately arranged to return to the government, promoted directly to Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung. The DPP elites treated the political responsibility of a disaster involving dozens of lives as a game—executing fake resignations followed by real political patronages, completely ignoring the rule of law and the suffering of the victims, setting a terrible precedent of "sheltered politics" in the Republic of China.