Word: dpp
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There are moments these days when a person like Chloe Lee, a 32-year-old boutique owner in downtown Taipei, can seem like a forgotten soul amid the bitterness that now defines politics in Taiwan. In the 1990s, she worked for the then opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), when it stood for reform and change, she says, not just for Taiwan's autonomy from China. But nowadays, she says, the ruling DPP?and, for that matter, its leader Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian?seems like a one-trick pony, and a tired pony at that. "We spend too much time...
...been two years since the tumultuous climax to the last bitter presidential election in Taiwan?the infamous "March 19 incident," when a gunman fired shots at Chen and his vice presidential candidate, Annette Lu. To the DPP, the matter is over and done with?the case solved, the would-be assassin dead by his own hand. To the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, the affair still stands as a sham, a political stunt orchestrated by a desperate DPP to win the election (albeit a dangerous stunt?Chen was shot in the abdomen). Two years on, Taiwan's political landscape is still...
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...
...DPP victory in the legislative election would give Chen a new mandate to push through two pet initiatives: buying an $18 billion arms package from the U.S., and holding an island-wide referendum on changing the constitution, which was promulgated on the mainland in 1947, to make it more relevant to today's Taiwan. (China considers both moves hostile.) At the same time, Chen has in recent weeks repeatedly pledged that he won't declare independence or have it written into a new constitution. That's not just campaign rhetoric. Though it is Taipei's main backer, Washington is currently...
...Performing that balancing act isn't easy, and it will be more difficult if the DPP does not win the legislative election. Many pollsters believe that though the blue alliance might lose some seats, it may not be enough for a green majority-in which case the DPP will be forced to horse-trade with independent legislators to carry out its agenda. However, at the Taoyuan rally, for 53-year-old steelworker Fan Cheng-hung the bigger worry is that the loser will be Taiwan. "We deserve a country," he says, "not the aggression of the world's superpowers...