TAIWAN: Taiwan's presidential candidates woo voters in the run up presidential alections
Record ID:
498245
TAIWAN: Taiwan's presidential candidates woo voters in the run up presidential alections
- Title: TAIWAN: Taiwan's presidential candidates woo voters in the run up presidential alections
- Date: 21st March 2008
- Summary: (BN12) KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN (FILE - 2002) (REUTERS) TAIWAN PRESIDENT CHEN SHUI-BIAN HOLDING HANDS WITH FRANK HSIEH AT MAYORAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN CROWD WAVING FLAGS CROWD SHOUTING OUT SLOGANS
- Embargoed: 5th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAD15JDD7S3LFGFZWIS99RESP9D
- Story Text: With two days to Taiwan's presidential election, candidate Ma Yinjeou and ruling Democratic Progressive Party candidate Frank Hsieh battle it out for the post.
To his fans, the presidential candidate for Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party is telegenic, sophisticated and charming. To his foes, Ma Ying-jeou is a foreign-born usurper whose loyalty to Taiwan is questionable.
Born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese parents just half a year after China was taken over by the Communists, Ma and his family moved to Taiwan when he was one year old.
After studying at New York University and Harvard University Law School, he had a brief stint on Wall Street, before returning to Taiwan and rising quickly through the ranks of the Nationalists, who ruled China before the Communist takeover.
Now 57, he was the Nationalist Party's (KMT) youngest deputy secretary-general at the age of 33 and Taiwan's youngest justice minister at
A few years later, Ma unseated the Democratic Progressive Party's Chen Shui-bian, the current president, as Taipei mayor in 1998.
The avid jogger's good looks and normally snappy dress sense have been known to send female supporters into a swoon, though his enemies charge that he is all style and no substance.
George Tsai, professor at the Sun Yat-sen's Institute for Globalization Studies at Chinese Culture University says Ma is known to the public as decent and honest and the DPP campaign is trying very hard to knock him off that pedestal.
"In terms of the candidates' strategies and characteristics, if he (Ma) successfully display the goodness in his personality such as gentleness, rational, non-radical approach, or his uprightness, and if he can bring out these qualities then results may turn out favourable for him," Tsai said.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh has attacked Ma for being born outside Taiwan and that he once held a U.S. green card, implying that he could flee Taiwan in a crisis.
Ma insists his green card expired long ago.
Ma, who media opinion polls suggest will win the presidency, wants stronger business ties with China and favours eventual reunification with the mainland if Beijing democratises, sparking concern he might cosy up too closely to the Communists.
He wants to widen commercial ties with China, including relaxing an investment cap and opening the island wider to Chinese tourism and charter flights.
His China trade agenda dovetails with domestic pledges of six percent annual GDP growth, 30,000 U.S. dollars (USD) GDP per capita and a jobless rate of less than three percent.
But a President Ma would be keen to show he can stand up to China and not be seen to be "selling out" Taiwan, analysts say. He is in favour of maintaining the status quo in relations with China and said he would not push for Taiwan independence or reunification with China if elected.
Ma denounced comments this week on Taiwan by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who offered to resume talks under the "one China" principle.
Ma said Taiwan's future could only be decided by the island's 23 million people.
China has seen self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the civil war ended in 1949 and threatened to use force, if necessary, to bring the island under its control.
From rights lawyer to mayor of Taiwan's second largest city, presidential candidate Frank Hsieh hopes to consolidate his Democratic Progressive Party's hold on power following its first president, Chen Shui-bian.
But unlike Chen, whose pro-Taiwan independence views have angered China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own and occasionally threatens to take it by force, Hsieh has promised to talk with Beijing and relax China-Taiwan investment rules.
Hsieh's relatively low-key manner contrasts sharply with that of Chen, whose frankness about his political ambitions irk even traditional allies such as the United States.
In his campaign for the March 22 election, Hsieh has suggested lowering a controversial limit on how much money Taiwan firms can invest in China and proposed letting Chinese business people invest more in Taiwan.
And he has put more emphasis on Taiwan's growing economic problems than Chen did in previous campaigns, though in recent days he has turned his attention to attacking China following the violence in Tibet.
Hsieh, 61, also comes across as far more combative than his opponent from the Nationalists, Ma Ying-jeou, a telegenic and fluent English-speaking former Taipei mayor who is considered more moderate towards China.
In contrast to Ma, Hsieh has a reputation for using tough tactics, having worked his way up the ranks as an attorney. He is known for his ability to latch onto his rivals' vulnerabilities and then exploit them relentlessly, said Shane Lee, a professor at Taiwan's Chang Jung University.
Frank Hsieh has successfully brought up issues surrounding his opponent, Ma, by questioning his China policies, and his loyalty as to whether he has a greencard or not.
"Attacking the topic of so called 'one-china market', as I said, is effective to some extent. Voters in central and southern Taiwan may be concerned about Chinese credentials, or frequent cross-strait business may suppress job opportunities, or problematic food coming into Taiwan. This has been effective," said George Tsai.
But factions in his party, which first captured the presidency in 2000, still oppose any contact with China, a country they consider a continued security threat.
China has claimed Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. The two sides are growing closer economically as China's market booms but do not speak to each other formally.
The bespectacled Hsieh has a law degree from the prestigious National Taiwan University and a masters degree from Japan's Kyoto University.
As mayor of Kaohsiung from 1998 to 2005, Hsieh turned the port city of
5 million people from a polluted, gridlocked urban sprawl to a greener and more liveable metropolis.
"Not only were problems of people's livelihoods and the city's severe political illnesses tackled one by one, he massively raised citizen's quality of life and sense of pride," Hsieh's snazzy official Web site (www.frankhsieh.com) proclaims.
Like his running mate, Su Tseng-chang, Hsieh has also defended the island's top political dissidents who were once rounded up and jailed for sedition during the martial law era.
Hsieh stepped down as mayor and became Taiwan's premier from February 2005 to January 2006. He ran for mayor of Taipei in late 2006, but lost to the candidate for the main opposition Nationalist Party.
Polls show Hsieh trailing against Ma.
Last year Hsieh was investigated but cleared of graft over funds spent when he was Kaohsiung's mayor.
Taiwan is due to hold a referendum alongside a presidential election on March 22, ignoring warnings from countries such as the United States, France and Japan as well as China.
The referendum, which if passed would be perceived by Beijing to be a formal declaration of independence, is doomed whatever the outcome because China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Russia and the EU have both expressed concern earlier this year.
"We hope clouds will be cleared of the sky after all is done. So far it seemed neither 'enter the UN' or 'return the UN' would pass, and that is in accordance with expectation of the international society. If it passes, then it depends on whether Ma Yin jeou or Frank Hsieh is elected. If Ma Yin jeou is elected, he is not very assertive, then the DPP is likely to threaten him with it, or create issues around it. Then it will be difficult to say how the cross-strait relation will evolve," said Tsai.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told self-ruled Taiwan early this month it cannot unilaterally decide its political future as the island prepares to hold a contentious referendum on whether to seek U.N. membership.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split in 1949 when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island.
Wen said reunification of the two sides is inevitable, and Taiwan's pro-independence activities were "doomed to fail".
He renewed an offer to enter into negotiations with Taiwan.
The "one China" principle says the island and the mainland are part of a single sovereign country. Taiwan has rejected "one China" as an unfair precondition.
Wen's remarks were dismissed by an official with Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, lost the China seat in the United Nations to Beijing's People's Republic of China in 1971.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 until 1945, when it was handed over to the then Chinese Nationalist government.
The Nationalists ruled Taiwan with an iron fist after fleeing there in 1949, before embarking upon democratisation. The DPP routed the Nationalists in the 2000 presidential elections.
The United Nations blocked Taiwan's quest for membership in the world body for the 15th consecutive year in 2007.
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