Word: chen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Over the past seven years in office, President Chen Shui-bian has pushed an agenda focused on a sovereign Taiwan independent of Beijing, which considers the territory an inseparable part of China. But Chen's latest political gambit, a public referendum next year on the island's bid for membership in the United Nations, has done more than elicit sharp criticism and veiled threats from China. It's also caused frictions with its main military defender, the United States...
...late August, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte declared Chen's proposal "a mistake." The State Department has regularly said the U.S. opposes Taiwan's membership in international organizations that require statehood, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Negroponte called the vote a step towards "a declaration of independence," urging Taiwan's leaders to "behave in a responsible manner." The referendum, scheduled to take place alongside presidential elections in March, will ask voters whether the island should join the U.N. under the name Taiwan. It's a provocative moniker: unlike previous applications under its official name...
...neither Chinese nor American opposition has done much to dampen Taiwanese enthusiasm for the referendum. On Saturday, more than 100,000 people took to the streets in the southern port city of Kaohsiung to rally in favor of the referendum and seemingly in support of Chen's vision of a sovereign Taiwan. More than 3,000 Taiwanese expatriates attended a second protest outside U.N. headquarters in New York City. A poll released earlier this month by a Taipei-based think tank found that 47% of respondents disagreed with the U.S.'s position that the referendum was a step towards independence...
...cross-straits war, however, is hardly imminent. For its part, Beijing cannot risk any embarrassing military action in the run-up to the Olympic games next August. And Taipei-based observers say that the referendum is less a declaration of independence than a political ploy by Chen to bolster his own legacy, as well as voter turnout in March for Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). "The ruling party doesn't have much to campaign about," says Chao Chien-min, a political science professor at Taiwan's National Chengchi University. "The only thing they can do is portray the opposition...
...Chen has denied the referendum has anything to do with politics. The president also stridently insists the vote will occur no matter what the circumstances. That said, he has tried to temper U.S. resistance by making assurances to American officials that the naming controversy will go away after the elections. And Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Christensen on Sept. 11 followed up Negroponte's earlier comments by emphasizing the continuing friendship between the two entities. "We do not like having to express publicly our disagreement with the Chen Administration on this or any other policy," Christensen said...