Clara Chou

Chou was born in Keelung and graduated from Keelung Girl's Senior High School. After high school, she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from National Chengchi University. She then completed graduate studies in the United States at Harvard University, where she graduated with a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, and went to Beijing and earned a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management.^[1]

From 2012 until 2021, she anchored Chou Chou Breakfast (蔻蔻早餐) from 7:00 to 9:00 every weekday on Hit FM.

In 2014, Chou accused President Ma Ying-jeou of accepting donations from the Ting Hsin International Group.^[2] At the time, the company was investigated as part of the 2014 Taiwan food scandal. Chou believed Ma had a hand in covering up Ting Hsin's role in the incident.^[3] In December, Ma filed two lawsuits against Chou for the comments she made.^[4] She countered with a lawsuit against the Kuomintang, targeting acting party chairperson Wu Den-yih.^[5] Chou was stripped of her KMT membership later that month,^[6][7] days after she had presented evidence of the party's alleged misdeeds.^[8] In December 2015, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chou on charges of defamation in connection to her comments about Ting Hsin.^[9] The first ruling in Ma's court case against Chou was handed down later that month. The Taipei District Court found her not guilty of defamation.^[10][11] Ma appealed the verdict to the Taiwan High Court.^[12]

Chou made further accusations of the KMT in June 2015, this time against then-unconfirmed presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu, claiming that Hung's master's degree from Northeast Missouri State University was falsified.^[13][14] Hung sued Chou and the Next Magazine employees who first published the accusations.^[15] Chou further stated in August that Hung was thinking of ending her presidential run early in return for a legislative position or money. In response, Hung charged Chou with defamation again.^[16] That same month, Terry Gou was awarded NT$2 million in his defamation suit against Chou, who had accused Gou of violating the Political Donations Act in January.^[17][18]

Chou supported the Kuomintang, before the party lost power in the 2000 election. After the loss, she publicly supported the Democratic Progressive Party's policies, and ran as a candidate for the Pan-Green Taiwan Solidarity Union in the 2006 Taipei City municipal election.^[1] She was expelled from the TSU during her mayoral campaign for suggesting that President Chen Shui-bian resign in the wake of First Lady Wu Shu-chen's indictment for graft,^[19][20] though her name still appeared on the ballot as the TSU candidate.^[21] The expulsion was later reduced to a suspension.^[22] By 2008, Chou had rejoined the KMT.^[1] After Ma Ying-jeou resigned as KMT chair in December 2014, Chou tried to run for the position, but was rejected.^[23]

In 1998, Chou claimed that she and Daniel Huang had an affair.^[26] She married Lee Hyun-Reng in 2001.^[27]