Lia Chiu

Councillor Lia Chiu
邱 利亞
Member of the Council of Kerlile
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 1997
President	Sara Viallamando, Joanna Greenwood, Rebecca Arnott
Preceded by	Aiyan Chiu
Personal details
Born	Lian Chiu (1941-07-20) July 20, 1941 New Fanshe, Kerlile
Nationality	Kerlian
Political party	Women's Party of Kerlile
Children	Jian Chiu, Yin Chiu, Genji Chiu, Peizhi Chiu
Mother	Aiyan Chiu
Education	University of Grapevale

Councillor Lia Chiu (born 20th July 1941) is the current Chiu family representative on the Council of Kerlile. She is a member of the Women's Party of Kerlile, a traditionalist Kerlian political party but has been known to vote against the party line on a number of issues.

Chiu is the present Chair of the Council, a position given to the longest-serving Councillor of Kerlile. She chairs over meetings of the Council and has the final say on disputes over agenda items, but she has no tie-breaking power.

Early life and education

Chiu was born in the province of New Fanshe to Aiyan Chiu in 1941, before the Education and Upbringing of Daughters of the Council Act (1956) (often known as EUDCA) which forbade male influence in the raising of potential future Councillors. As a result, she was raised until the age of 15 by both her mother and father, alongside three sisters and four brothers.

As a member of the Chiu family, who are known in Kerlile for having a greatly above-average number of children compared to other Council families and the national population, she was home-educated until the age of 15 when EUDCA was passed mandating that Daughters were educated in Maytown. At this age, she travelled to Maytown and completed her schooling for three years before attending university in Grapevale.

At the University of Grapevale, she studied Business and Financial Studies, graduating in 1962.

Pre-Council years

After university, Chiu went on to work directly for her grandmother, the founder of Kerlile Yijun Chiu as a political assistant until Yijun's death in 1968. In that position, she assisted her grandmother with the formation of economic policy to propose to the Council, alongside other jobs. In this role she travelled to several different nations to try and establish trade but due to the Council's human rights record, this failed.

Following the death of her grandmother, Lia took a break from active politics, focusing on raising her female children. She briefly started a children's clothing business which operated from 1974 until 1990, but her business ceased trading after a repeated lack of profits.

On the Council

At the age of 56, after the death of her mother, Lia Chiu became a Councillor of Kerlile. Throughout her time on the Council, she has been mostly supportive of traditionalist Kerlian politics, with the exception of on family matters. Chiu is an open opponent of EUDCA and the exclusion of male children from the lives of Council families. She is also opposed to sex-selective abortions, which are legal in Kerlile.

Despite her membership of the Women's Party, in the 2019 Presidential Election she voted for Reform Party candidate Rebecca Arnott, becoming the deciding vote in electing the first President of Kerlile who was not a member of the Women's Party. This happened after then-Councillor Arnott alongside Councillor Robinson were both arrested in the run-up to the election, which several Councillors objected greatly to.

In 2019, following the imprisonment of Anita Patel for war crimes committed during the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War, Chiu became the longest-serving member of the Council of Kerlile and thus assumed the position of Chair of the Council.

Personal life

Chiu spends most of her spare time with her family on their estate. She plays a large role in the raising of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with even extended family being welcome in her home. She enjoys gardening and painting. She is not known to travel abroad frequently. In her youth, she enjoyed martial arts and shooting.