Word: chen
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...Clean government is my highest principle." CHEN SHUI-BIAN, President of Taiwan, in a live television address, rebutting allegations of insider trading and influence peddling involving his aides and family. Opposition legislators have called for Chen to step down over the scandals...
...whistle-blower is no hero, at least to the Chinese government. In March, Chen Guangcheng, a blind activist who was named to the TIME 100 this year for publicizing an illegal campaign of forced sterilizations and abortions, was removed from house arrest and taken away by police. Chen's whereabouts were unknown until June 11, when officials confirmed he was in jail. The odd charges against him include "gathering a crowd to disrupt traffic." His lawyer, Li Jingsong, who saw Chen last week, says his client is unbowed: "Spiritually, he's very strong...
...Neither the man nor the system, however, are fully to blame. Chen has been ineffective, but he has also been hamstrung by some factors beyond his control. He has repeatedly invited the Chinese to talk with him, and he has refrained from declaring independence, changing the island's name or flag, or holding a public referendum on Taiwan's status?all of which would provoke Beijing. Yet China's leaders have cold-shouldered him because they view him in only one dimension?as a "splittist"?without seemingly taking into account the need for Chen, an elected official, to cater...
...domestic front, Chen's efforts to govern and reform have often been blocked by the opposition-controlled legislature. It has yet to confirm his nominees for president and vice-president of the Control Yuan, Taiwan's highest watchdog body, even though the posts have been vacant for more than a year. It has opposed the creation of an ethics and anticorruption bureau, a bill that would force political parties to be more transparent about their assets, and changes in the judiciary that would make the courts more efficient...
...only last year did the KMT properly elect its own party leader for the first time. The KMT is not accustomed to being out of power. Instead of working together with the administration to advance Taiwan's interests, the opposition is merely playing spoiler so it can bring down Chen and the DPP. It's an immature posture to adopt, but it reflects how young Taiwan's democracy is?it is only six years, after all, since the watershed 2000 election...