Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Overseas Chinese leader seeks seat in Taiwan body Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Overseas Chinese leader seeks seat in Taiwan body \BY Gus Constantine \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Mark Chen, a leader in the overseas Chinese community, is returning to Taiwan this week to run for a legislative seat on an agenda calling for an independent Taiwan, more democracy and closer ties with nearby states, including North Korea, Vietnam and Laos. Mr. Chen is running as a member of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), founded six years ago as a rival to the dominant Kuomintang. The election is scheduled for next month, but an exact date has not been set. The legislative seat Mr. Chen would occupy if he wins the election, as expected, is as a representative of overseas Chinese. In all, six seats are set aside for representatives of the overseas Chinese community. Mr. Chen's views, which parallel those of the DPP, challenge some of the fundamental views held by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), the party of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek. Forty-four years after they were driven from the mainland, the leaders of the Kuomintang continue to consider China and Taiwan one nation - and themselves as its rightful rulers. The mission to replace communist rule on the mainland is cited as justification for treating Taiwan as a temporary home. It is also the stated reason for restricted rule on the island itself and for keeping other communist states at arm's length. "Taiwan must begin to address its situation more realistically," Mr. Chen, who heads the Washington-area-based Taiwan Foundation, said at a farewell reception in his honor. "Only if we focus on Taiwan instead of the mainland can we begin to regain the diplomatic recognition we lost when most nations switched from Taipei to Beijing," Mr. Chen said. As much as Mr. Chen's views fly in the face of Kuomintang orthodoxy, they appear certain to inflame Beijing even more. Mr. Chen's hopes for economic cooperation with all states on the Chinese periphery seem almost a replica of South Korean President Roh Tae-woo's "Nordpolitik," an ambitious and highly successful effort to outflank rival North Korea by drawing closer to its communist allies. Although unstated, it is likely that the policy - "strategic economic cooperation" as Mr. Chen's supporters call it - is intended to create partners with a stake in Taiwan that would eventually expand to political support as the push begins for greater recognition. The election comes on the heels of a forced mass retirement of aging Kuomintang legislators, who held their seats by virtue of the last election on the mainland in 1947. Their retirement, together with the lifting of martial law, press liberalization and the officially declared end last year of the fiction that the communists are a party "in rebellion," constitutes a strong reformist current within the Kuomintang itself. "There are actually two Kuomintangs now," Mr. Chen said, "an old guard whose power rests on the one-China thesis and a reformist wing which wants change." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM