Word: bian
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When opposition politicians James Soong and Lien Chan recently returned from successful bridge-building visits to China, there was every indication that Taiwan's combative President, Chen Shui-bian, and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be solidly trounced in Saturday's National Assembly election. Chen, who opposes any talk of reunification with mainland China, had seen his popularity rating plunge to 39%, his lowest yet, in the fallout from Lien's and Soong's trips. But that number didn't count at the ballot box: the DPP was a surprise winner in the National Assembly poll, snagging...
...Taiwan Strait was irrationally exuberant. From the Taiwan side, in fact, the event largely highlighted the deep political divisions on the island?and Beijing's adroit efforts to exploit them. Lien was received like a visiting head of state, which he isn't. Taiwan's President is Chen Shui-bian, and he and his supporters want to stand up to China, not cozy up. Chen actually endorsed Lien's trip at the last minute. But the phoniness of that rapprochement was on display at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport the morning Lien boarded the plane. Hundreds...
...that the island hasn't kept pace. Taiwan's military budget has fallen as a percentage of its GDP, and its armed forces have been slow to enact needed institutional reforms, according to U.S. strategic experts. A multibillion-dollar arms purchase from the U.S., pushed by President Chen Shui-bian, has been held up for almost four years because of resistance by the opposition KMT and PFP parties, which claim that the weapons are overpriced. Wu Tung-yeh, a professor at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations, believes the island has let its guard down. "Taiwan," he says...
...anti-Syrian opposition dismissed President Emile Lahoud's call for them to enter talks with loyalist factions, which came after a car bomb in Beirut injured 11 people, boosting fears of renewed bloodshed as Syrian troops start to withdraw. The Ties That Bind CHINA Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian condemned as a "law of aggression" Beijing's new antisecession legislation, which permits the use of "nonpeaceful means" against Taiwan if the island moves toward formal independence from the mainland. MEANWHILE IN FRANCE... A Piste of One's Own Lee Kun-hee, chairman of South Korean electronics giant Samsung, has avoided...
...year after Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian and his running mate Annette Lu were wounded on the eve of the island's 2004 election, Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau announced last week that it had a suspect: Chen Yi-hsiung, an unemployed man who blamed the President for his economic woes. The only problem: Chen Yi-hsiung is dead. Police say he drowned off the southern city of Tainan 10 days after the March 19 shooting, a death now considered a suicide. It's a case with huge import: hours after the attempted assassination, President Chen won re-election...