Taiwan's 2nd Democratic Presidential Election
On Saturday, March 18, 2000, voters will go to 13,457 ballot booths in the "free area of the Republic of China" that is Taiwan. Four years after their democratic presidential election and with their island's future still uncertain, voters in Taiwan will be choosing a successor to current leader Lee Teng-hui. The five presidential candidates are independent James Soong, the Kuomintang's (KMT) Lien Chang, the New Party's Lee Ao, independent Hsu Hsin-liang and the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Chen Shui-bian (Fig.1). But as Taiwan's people prepare to choose only their second popularly elected president and perhaps transfer Taiwan's leadership to a new party for the first time in 51 years. The three leading candidates (Lien Chan, Chen Shui-bian, and James Soong) have been subdues, their rhetoric mild, and the tone tentative and cautious. The reason is China, 90 miles away across the Taiwan Strait (Fig 2). When the communists took control of China in 1949, the Nationalists under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, where they established the Republic of China as a government in exile and imposed martial law. China has considered Taiwan a renegade province ever since and has threatened to use force to bri
9)Chieh-yu Lin, Change History, Says Chen, www.taipeitimes.com/news/2000/03/12/print/0000027528 11)Cheng Allen, Taiwan's Democracy Factor, www.cnn.com/Asianow/Asianweek/ma.....00/0317/nat.5taiwan.democracy.htm1 1)Chen-yu Lin, The candidates go head-to-head, www.taipeitimes.com/news/2000/02/21/print/0000024934 10)Christensen John, Taiwan picks a president with China in mind, www.cnn.com/specials/2000/t...election/stories/overview/index.htm1 the Communists. Lien Chan would like to explore the possibility of building better mainland, establishing what he calls a win-win situation between the two sides. James Soong thinks that Taiwan's fundamental position is that Taiwan want to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Chen Shui-bian states that the ones who can normalize relations with the mainland with the mainland are not the parties that have had historical disputes with China. The KMT-Communist Party dispute still exists. The DPP, on the other hand, has no historical baggage. These three major presidential candidates are all willing to pursue peace with China, but they are likely to be restrained by two factors: First, the race is so tight that whoever wins will do so by a small margin and will not have a mandate. The new president will thus have to reach a cross-party consensus before dealing with China. Second, the influence of mass sentiment is such that the new president must win the confidence of the people before any negotiations. But meanwhile, the polls say that as many as 80 percent of Taiwan's 22 million people do not want to reunify with China in the foreseeable future, and for obvious reasons. in 1945 they were again fighting each other for control of China. After suffering a series of defeats at the hands of the Communists, Chiang and his Nationalists forces fled to Taiwan in 1949. The Kuomintang has maintained a virtual monopoly of power on the island ever sine, holding nearly all legislative, executive, and judicial posts. Over the past decade, however, it has seen some of its power eroded by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. The Democratic Progressive Party, formed on Sept. 28, 1986, now has approximately 200,000 members. The Party's organizational structure closely resembles that of the Kuomintang. The party was established primarily by family members and defense lawyers of imprisoned dissidents, the DPP became the first political party to challenge the Kuomintang's decades long grip on power. The DPP quickly support from ethnic Taiwanese frustrated by the authoritarian rule of the Kuomintang, whose loyalists and leaders had fled from mainland China in 1949 following their army's defense by the Chinese Communists. In its charter the DPP promotes holding a referendum on independence from China and opposes the Kuomintang's "one China's policy." DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian has pledged, however, that if elected he will not declare independence for Taiwan unless China invades. The New Party was established in August 1993, shortly before the Kuomintang's 14th National Congress, a group of KMT "Young Turks" including six legislative Yuan members and one former lawmaker broke away from the party to establish the New Party. The New Party differs from the KMT and the DPP in organizational structure, stressing the leadership of those holding public office. At the head of the party is the National Campaign and Development Committee. The convener of the committee, a position currently filled by Lee-Chian-hua, Lien Chan's Proposal and Position: (Fig.4) 6)Ide William & Chieh-yu Lin, Candidates Put Spotlight on Social Welfare, www.taipeitimes.com/news/20
Some common words found in the essay are:
Progressive Party, Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan Chen, Republic China, KMT-Communist Party, Taiwan Province, Taiwan China, Chan Chen, Strait February, Ching-kuo-Chiang Lai-shek's, chen shui-bian, democratic progressive, lien chan, progressive party, democratic progressive party, republic china, james soong, presidential election, nationalist party, presidential candidates, president lien chan, vice president, vice president lien, candidate chen shui-bian, beijing reality work,
Approximate Word count = 2452
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
