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Tibet unrest colors Taiwan elections
2008-03-21
Voters were deciding Saturday whether to stick with a party that has struggled to improve ties with rival China or switch to one promising peace with the island's giant neighbor. Just two weeks ago, opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou seemed ready to cruise to victory, promising to improve relations with China and even work toward a common market with the Communist country. But ruling party candidate Frank Hsieh appears to have been closing the gap. His party used the last day of campaigning to fan outrage over China's crackdown in Tibet. Hsieh warns that China's crackdown in Tibet could be replicated in Taiwan, which split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949. Beijing still considers the island to be part of its territory and has threatened to attack if Taiwan rejects unification and seeks a permanent break. "If Ma is elected, Taiwan's future will be in danger," Hsieh told a cheering crowd at a rally Friday in the southern city of Chiayi. "It will be the same for China to attack Tibet or Taiwan because it will be China's domestic issue." But Ma has accused Hsieh of exploiting Tibet for political gain, although he himself has threatened to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing if the Tibetan situation worsens. He also has accused Hsieh's Democratic Progressive Party of recklessly provoking Beijing during its eight years in power, and promised to reverse the pro-independence direction of outgoing President Chen Shui-bian. "We won't rock the boat in regional waters," he said. "We will make ourselves a peacemaker not a troublemaker." Ma has proposed a formal peace treaty with Beijing that would demilitarize the Taiwan Strait, the 100-mile-wide waterway that separates the two heavily armed sides. But he too has drawn the line at unification, promising that it would not be discussed during his presidency. Hsieh, a former premier and dissident lawyer, has criticized Ma's common market plan as a half-baked idea that would flood the island with migrant Chinese workers who would steal jobs from working-class Taiwanese. Ma claims that Hsieh has been distorting his proposal. The common market framework would be negotiated over time, Ma says, and Chinese workers wouldn't be allowed to come to the island. "There are so many unemployed people in Taiwan," Ma told thousands of supporters at a rally on Friday in the southern city of Kaohsiung. "If I allow Chinese laborers to come, then that means I am becoming stupid. I won't allow Chinese laborers to come, but I'll allow Chinese tourists to come to spend money here." Speaking to reporters Friday, Hsieh acknowledged that the ruling party has fallen short in its China policy. He also promised to ease tensions with China -- but not at the expense of Taiwan's de facto independence. "I will open up to China and maintain Taiwan's sovereignty at the same time," he said. "Ma is opening up but not maintaining sovereignty. I am taking a balanced approach." While Taiwanese law forbids the publication of opinion polls in the last 10 days of campaigning, both parties agree that Hsieh has been closing in on his rival over the last two weeks.
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