Word: chen
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There is certainly no love lost between the rulers of the People's Republic of China and President Chen Shui-bian over on Taiwan, the island Beijing considers a breakaway province. Again and again, the Communist regime has been infuriated by Chen's efforts to push the island closer to independence, completing its transformation from an exiled regime - the Republic of China, with its pretensions of ruling the mainland - into an entity completely separate from China, a fully sovereign nation called Taiwan. And so, on Saturday, one could almost hear the cheering in China after Chen's Democratic Progressive Party...
...Communists have learned that trying too hard to influence political affairs on the raucously democratic island only backfires. The Kuomintang (KMT), which favors closer ties with China, won 81 of Legislative Yuan's 113 seats, soundly defeating Chen's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which took 27. The win also gives momentum to KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou over DPP rival Frank Hsieh in the March 22 vote. Chen Shui-bian called it the worst setback in the history of the DPP, and took responsibility by resigning as the party's chairman...
During this election cycle in Taiwan, Beijing has taken a subtle approach. Last year Taiwan's President Chen announced plans for a referendum that would ask voters whether the island should seek to join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan." The island, which lost its U.N. representation in 1971 when its seat was switched to Beijing, has been blocked in several attempts to re-join the body under its formal name of "Republic of China." While the referendum will have little practical effect - the island doesn't have the support to enter the U.N. under any name...
Beijing should also be happy with the mood of Taiwan's electorate. "People want the government [in Taipei] to revive the economy and bring order back to politics," says Political Science Professor Chao Chien-min of National Chengchi University in Taiwan. "The majority is fed up with Chen's political engineering of controversies, ethnic tensions and referendums...
...China. Currently, what would be just a 90-minute trip between Taipei and Shanghai is a nearly seven-hour haul through a third city, usually Hong Kong. Taiwan's businessmen have lobbied for direct flights for years, but China has been unwilling to negotiate because of its anger at Chen...