DATE=3/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TAIWAN DEMOS (L)
NUMBER=2-260340
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=TAIPEI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Taiwanese riot police have clashed with
thousands of angry demonstrators demanding President
Lee Teng-hui resign as party chairman of the long-
ruling Nationalist Party. Correspondent Roger
Wilkison reports the demonstrators are blaming Mr. Lee
for the party's crushing defeat in Saturday's
presidential election, which was won by opposition
candidate Chen Shui-bian.
/// SOUND OF HORNS BLARING ///
TEXT: It was a noisy demonstration, and its
protagonists were angry with Mr. Lee.
/// SOUND OF WOMEN YELLING DOWN WITH LEE TENG-HUI ///
All afternoon and late into the evening (Sunday), the
demonstrators - mostly Nationalist Party faithful -
vented their ire at the man they hold responsible for
the end of more than 50-years of Nationalist rule.
A man who identified himself as an employee of a
trading company says Mr. Lee must step down as party
chairman.
/// UNIDENTIFIED MAN ACT ///
He should be responsible for that. We only ask
him to resign. That is all.
/// END ACT ///
In the early afternoon, the demonstrators surrounded
the party headquarters building in downtown Taipei and
pelted several party officials' cars with rocks and
eggs. They broke windows of some of the vehicles.
Police on hand called for reinforcements, who cordoned
off the building and occasionally fired water cannon
at the demonstrators if they got too close.
Many of the protesters say they believe Mr. Lee
engineered Mr. Chen's victory by choosing a weak
candidate, Vice-President Lien Chan, to run as the
Nationalist standard-bearer. They are angry that Mr.
Lee did not pick James Soong, an influential
Nationalist politician who quit the party and mounted
an independent campaign after a falling out with Mr.
Lee.
One member of the Nationalist Party, the K-M-T, as it
is also known, is convinced that Mr. Lee - despite his
denials - secretly favored Mr. Chen as his successor
and sold out his own party.
/// WOMAN ACT ///
The biggest reason is he fully supported Chen
Shui-bian on the table and under the table. So
he cheated us...Most members of the K-M-T like
Soong Chu-yi, but the Chairman of the K-M-T - he
chose Lien.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Soong polled 37-percent of the vote, just behind
Mr. Chen. Mr. Lien received only 23-percent. The
demonstrators say that Mr. Chen would not have won if
Mr. Soong had been the Nationalist candidate because
he would have picked up all of his own votes and Mr.
Lien's as well.
The protesters accuse Mr. Lee of wanting independence
for Taiwan. They say that is the reason for his
favoring Mr. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party
platform calls for independence, even though Mr. Chen
has backed away from that stance in an effort not to
provoke China.
Mr. Lee, like Mr. Chen, is a native-born Taiwanese,
while many of the demonstrators are of mainland
Chinese origin. They are distressed at the direction
the Nationalist Party has taken under the President
Lee. Twenty-eight-year-old financial analyst Danny
Feng is one of them.
/// FENG ACT ///
People here - some people - they only believe
they are Taiwanese, they are not Chinese. I
think that is the problem.
/// END ACT ///
Every year, polls show the number of islanders who
consider themselves Taiwanese is growing, while those
who identify themselves as Chinese, or both Taiwanese
and Chinese -like Mr. Feng- is declining. But even
those Taiwanese who have ties to the mainland mostly
say they prefer the status quo, whereby Taiwan enjoys
de facto independence. Reunification with China- they
say- can only be realized when China becomes a
democracy. (SIGNED)
NEB/RW/RAE
19-Mar-2000 09:47 AM EDT (19-Mar-2000 1447 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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