Vote Favors
Independent Taiwan
China
Likely to Resent Chen Party's Showing in Legislative Election
By
Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 2, 2001
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 1 -- A political party that
favors Taiwan's independence won the largest number of seats
in the legislature for the first time when millions of voters
cast ballots today for allies of President Chen Shui-bian, despite
an ailing economy and China's efforts to discredit him.
The strong showing by Chen's Democratic Progressive Party is
certain to alarm China's Communist government, which claims
this self-governing island of 23 million people as its own and
threatens to seize it by force if necessary.
Chen has promised not to provoke China by declaring independence.
But his party's growing strength suggests that people in Taiwan
continue to resist reunification despite Beijing's alternating
efforts to intimidate them with threats of war and to entice
them with investment opportunities.
Official results released tonight showed that Chen's party
won 87 of the 225 seats in the legislature and 37 percent of
the vote, sweeping aside the Nationalist Party that governed
Taiwan for nearly five decades and supports eventual reunification
with China.
"We have officially become the largest party in the legislature,"
declared DPP chairman Frank Hsieh at a victory celebration.
"This is a triumph for the public in general, because Taiwan
has taken a big step toward becoming a mature democracy."
The Nationalists, who lost the presidency
to Chen last year in the island's first democratic transition
of power, won only 68 seats in the legislature and 31 percent
of the vote, down from the 110 seats they held previously. It
was a stunning loss for the party that Chiang Kai-shek led to
Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to the Communists
in China.
"We did not win," conceded Nationalist leader Lien
Chan. "But we are still the largest opposition party. We
will step up negotiations with others so we can together help
stabilize politics."
The results also represent a serious defeat for China, which
had sought to undermine Chen by ignoring his government and
wooing his political opponents and Taiwanese businesses. Officials
in Beijing had hoped the island's economic problems -- Taiwan
is suffering its worst recession on record -- and an exodus
of Taiwanese companies to China would weaken Chen.
But Chen emerged from today's election with his strongest political
mandate yet. Voters chose not to blame him entirely for Taiwan's
problems, and instead punished the Nationalists for repeatedly
thwarting his legislative agenda.
Another winner was the People First Party, a pro-unification
organization led by former Nationalist James Soong, which more
than doubled its seats in the legislature from 20 to 46.
Although Chen failed to win a legislative majority, he is expected
to form an alliance with the fledgling Taiwan Solidarity Union,
a party founded by former president Lee Teng-hui that is even
more strongly in favor of Taiwan's independence than the DPP.
With its support, Chen would need to persuade only about a dozen
other legislators to join him to form a coalition.
"President Chen comes out of this election in a very good
position," said Emile Sheng, a political scientist at Taipei's
Soochow University. "There are a lot of options available
to him. In effect, he already controls enough seats, so there's
no way the Nationalists can block major legislation."
In a brief statement tonight, Chen reached out to the opposition
parties. "Regardless of the election outcome, the end of
agitation should be the beginning of reason. The end of the
elections should mark the beginning of cooperation," he
said.
While the DPP supports independence, Chen has moved the party
away from that position, relaxing limits on Taiwanese investment
in China, easing restrictions on Chinese tourists and reporters
in Taiwan, and repeatedly offering to open talks with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin.
But Beijing remains suspicious of
Chen because he refuses to agree in advance that Taiwan is part
of China, the "one China" principle.
The Chinese government issued no immediate reaction to the
election results. State-run media issued a one-sentence report
late tonight listing the number of seats won by each party without
any commentary.
China has shown signs of growing impatient
with Chen. During the campaign, Chen said accepting the "one
China" principle would destroy Taiwan. He appeared to reject
a Nationalist-supported plan to reopen talks by agreeing there
is "one China" but noting that the two sides disagree
on what that term means.
Later, Chen's aides sought to clarify
his position, saying he was willing to discuss anything with
China without preconditions. But in unusually frank remarks,
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan dismissed Chen as a liar:
"I hold him in contempt. His mouth cannot speak the truth,
and everything he says is a lie."
Some analysts say Beijing might be willing to meet with Chen
now that he has consolidated his political position, and it
appears unlikely he will be lose power anytime soon. But others
say that with a critical Communist Party leadership transition
scheduled next year, Chinese officials will be reluctant to
appear weak on Taiwan by compromising with Chen.
