March 19 shooting incident

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The March 19 shooting incident (Chinese: 三一九槍擊事件), also known as the 319 incident, was an assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu while they were campaigning in Tainan, Taiwan on 19 March 2004, the day before Taiwan's presidential election. Their injuries were not life-threatening, and both Chen and Lu were released from Chi-Mei Hospital on the same day without losing consciousness or undergoing surgery.

The attack provoked shock and unease in Taiwan, where political violence of this kind was commonplace against non-KMT members 40 years earlier.^[1][2] The Taiwan dollar fell by 0.2 percent but quickly recovered.^[2]

Reaction to the incident divided along partisan lines. Some including Lu pointed to Beijing and the People's Republic of China for orchestrating the attack because of her and Chen's stance supporting Taiwanese independence from the mainland.^[3][2] By contrast their election opponent, Lien Chan, supported by the Pan-Blue Coalition, was a supporter for integration with the mainland.^[2] The opposing Pan-Blue supporters believed that the incident was faked in order to win the sympathy of voters in the upcoming election, which Chen and Lu won by 29,500 votes.^[4] Several forensic studies, including one conducted by an American team, showed that the gun wounds were real.^[5]

In August 2005, the case was officially closed with all evidence pointing to a single deceased suspect, Chen Yi-hsiung.^[6]