DATE=10/20/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=TAIWAN-CANDIDATE
NUMBER=5-44556
BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO
DATELINE=TAIPEI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The race for Taiwan's presidency is heating up
as the candidates head into the last few months of
campaigning before the election in March. As V-O-A's
Stephanie Ho reports, outspoken gadfly Li Ao -- who
announced his candidacy in August -- is adding a
splash of color to the staid presidential contest.
TEXT: Writer, television personality and former
political prisoner Li Ao prides himself on daring to
say things other Taiwanese presidential candidates
will not say.
His outspokenness includes disagreement with Taiwan's
President Lee Teng-hui, on relations with China. In
July, President Lee Teng, angered China by calling on
it to treat the island as an equal state. Beijing
considers Taiwan part of Chinese territory and renewed
its threat to use force to keep the island from moving
toward independence.
By contrast with Taiwan's political mainstream,
presidential candidate Li Ao says he advocates
Beijing's one country, two systems plan -- under which
Taiwan would reunify with the mainland, but maintain
its own military force and democratic way of life.
// LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION //
I have always opposed independence for Taiwan because
I think it will never happen. Taiwan independence is
a good dream, but it is just a mirage.
// END ACT //
Li Ao says the one country, two systems proposal is
taboo in Taiwan, so his opponents refuse to discuss
the topic. He says he believes reunification is
necessary, though, for the most basic reason that
Taiwan's economy is dependent on good relations with
mainland China.
Despite being anti-independence, he was once
imprisoned as an independence activist. In the
1970's, Taiwan's ruling Guomindang government - or K-
M-T - accused Li Ao of being a supporter of Taiwan
independence and put him in jail for nearly six years.
He says he was framed.
// LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION //
I have always criticized the K-M-T. They had to find
a reason to lock me up. But I am not a communist, so
they had a hard time calling me a political criminal.
The Taiwan independence activists said I was their
colleague, so it gave the K-M-T a good, but false,
reason to lock me up.
// END ACT //
Li Ao was born in mainland China 64 years ago. He
grew up in Beijing and then moved with his family to
Taiwan in 1949, at the age of 14.
Earlier this month, a half-page advertisement
denouncing Li Ao and several others was placed on the
front page of the China Times Evening Paper. He says
the issue that most angered him in the ad, was the
accusation that he is more sympathetic to the Chinese
government because of his background.
The presidential candidate is a self-described
megalomaniac. When asked about his power base, his
answer is that when he looks in the mirror every day,
he sees at least one supporter.
// LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION //
I think if I weren't already Li Ao, I would want to be
Li Ao.
// END ACT //
This self-confidence is not likely to translate into
electoral victory, though. Li Ao himself admits that
his main goal is not to win, but to use his high-
profile campaign to speak out about unpopular issues.
He says he hopes to garner at least seven percent of
the vote. That is the minimum he would need so that
the party supporting him, the New Party, can recoup
from government electoral funds the 475-thousand
dollars it paid for fielding him as a candidate.
(signed)
NEB/HO/FC/PLM
20-Oct-1999 05:22 AM EDT (20-Oct-1999 0922 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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