She worked as president of the New Zealand Chinese Students' Association and as a director of a business consultancy firm.[6] She was appointed to the board of Foundation North in 2019.[7][8] A musician who learned piano, flute, double bass and tuba, she also sat on the board of the Auckland Philharmonia.[9][10]
Chen was asked to run as a Labour candidate at the 2017 general election by Raymond Huo.[3] She was selected as a list candidate, ranked 50, then additionally selected for the East Coast Bays electorate after the previous Labour candidate withdrew.[11][12][13] She was defeated in the electorate contest by National's Erica Stanford and not ranked high enough to be elected as a list MP.[14]
She stood again at the 2020 election and was ranked 38 on the Labour Party list.[15] Chen also contested the Botany electorate. Despite losing the Botany electorate to National's Christopher Luxon by a margin of 3,999 votes, she was ranked high enough on the Labour list to get into Parliament.[16][17][18][19] In parliament, Chen sat on the governance and administration committee and was deputy chair (from 2020 to 2023) and chair (2023) of the economic development, science and innovation committee.[20]
Ahead of the 2023 election, she sought the Labour Party nomination for Auckland Central but was unsuccessful.[21] Instead, she contested East Coast Bays for a second time. Stanford retained the seat and, despite her improved list rank of 33, the party did not poll well enough for Chen to be re-elected.[22] Due to her low ranking on the party list, she was not re-elected to Parliament.[23]
Alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party
In September 2017, New Zealand sinologist and University of Canterbury political scientist Anne-Marie Brady alleged in a conference paper that Chen had "close […] connections" to the United Front, a network of groups and individuals and strategy the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses to advance its agenda. Brady cited Chen's leadership of New Zealand Chinese Students' Association, a "united front-related organization", as evidence.[24] Chen said she felt "hurt" by the accusations.[25] Prior to the 2020 election, members of the group New Zealand Values Alliance distributed flyers in Auckland alleging that Chen was a "CCP agent".[3]
