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Presidential Office replaces statue of Sun with pot plant By Ko Shu-ling,STAFF REPORTER Thursday, Mar 15, 2007, Page 2A potted Taiwan cypress tree stands where a bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen used to be located at the top of a staircase at the Presidential Office building yesterday. PHOTO: CNA Following the government's recent efforts to remove statues of late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), a spokesman yesterday confirmed that a statue of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) had been removed from the Presidential Office building. Anyone visiting the grand hall on the second floor of the Presidential Office building will notice that the...

US decides on transit plan: source BUSH APPROVAL: Chen Shui-bian will not be allowed to land in the continental US nor stay overnight, officials said, adding that the US president had made the decision By Charles Snyder and Nadia Tsao STAFF REPORTERS IN WASHINGTON Wednesday, May 03, 2006,Page 3 A US source said yesterday that US President George W. Bush will allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to transit through the US on his way to and from Latin America. Bush authorized Chen to stop in Honolulu, Hawaii, on his way to Latin America, and in Anchorage, Alaska, on his...

 The State Department does an about-face, lending unexpected support to President Chen Shui-bian. Members of the "Taiwan Haters Club" must be truly dismayed. When Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian formally announced the scrapping of the National Unification Council (NUC) on Monday, these supreme panda huggers were, with good reason, expecting the Taiwanese "troublemakers" to be lambasted by the Bush administration. After all, it is U.S. policy to maintain the uneasy status quo between Taiwan and mainland China. Instead, the State Department spokesman was seen as defending Taipei's move.Speaking at a national security council conference on February 27, Chen concluded that the...

U.S. caves to China, again -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 3, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com I'm ashamed of my country today. In 1776, the United States of America was formed in the name of independence. Our forefathers fought a gallant and war in the name of independence. They risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in the name of independence. But this week, the United States told the people of Taiwan, once again, to forget about independence. Don't even talk about it, the State Department warned. You might enflame the passions of the totalitarians in Beijing who...

Taiwan spends a small fortune lobbying Washington so the U.S. will ride to its rescue in case of a Chinese attack. Yet more than four years after the U.S. offered a package of advanced defense weapons, politicians in Taipei still haven't decided to buy them. This isn't helping Taiwan's cause in Washington. In April 2001, the Bush administration reversed the Clinton policy and offered Patriot anti-missile batteries, anti-submarine aircraft and diesel submarines. It did so at some diplomatic risk, since China has objected to the sale. But Taiwan clearly needs a stronger deterrent given China's military buildup, which includes more...

TAIPEI, Taiwan - For decades, Taiwan and China have tussled with each other in far corners of the globe, fighting for allies through "dollar diplomacy." Now, it seems, China may be gaining the upper hand, sustained by deeper pockets, growing global clout and an unlikely ally: members of Taiwan's parliament. Prying Taiwanese legislators want to know how the Foreign Ministry spends its money, putting a crimp in the practice of quietly handing out cash to foreign politicians and sweetheart foundations abroad. Diplomatic switches occur routinely. Taiwan's latest headache: The Vatican is making overtures to China, threatening the island's only diplomatic...

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's president accused Beijing on Thursday of breaking its promise to give Hong Kong autonomy after its return to Chinese rule and said such "false words" were a lesson for his self-ruled, democratic island. Chen Shui-bian, reviled by Beijing for his pro-independence stance, said there had been at least 163 cases of China violating the rights of residents in the former British colony and interfering in its judicial independence and freedom of speech. "The so-called 'one country, two systems' are empty words, false words," Chen told a group of Hong Kong-based Taiwanese business people on the eve...

The president taïwanais calls with negotiations with China TAIPEI - the president taïwanais Chen Shui-bian called Monday with negotiations with rival China for a reconciliation and establishment of a permanent peace, according to remarks' brought back by the agency taïwanaise Central News Agency (CNA). Mr. Chen, visits some in the Marshall Islands, also offered the installation of a bilateral mechanism of consultation on the military questions and safety in order to alleviate the tensions between the two enemy sisters of Asia. The president taïwanais had already invited Sunday China to open a dialogue with him in an attempt at...

Beijing, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Chinese President Hu Jintao reasserted here Friday that his country will keep on making efforts to reach the peaceful reunification of China, but without permitting the independence of Taiwan. Hu Jintao, Head of State and Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CPCh), talked about the topic before a group of delegates attending to the annual session of the Chinese People"s Political Consulting Conference (ChPPCC) in representation of Taiwan, which started Thursday. "We will keep on making our greatest efforts, with our greatest sincerity, searching for peaceful reunification, but we will never tolerate the independence...

China gears up for showdown, ball in Taiwan's court 05 Jul 2004 06:05:03 GMT By Benjamin Kang Lim BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) - When China holds war games on Dongshan island off its southeastern coast this month, its SU-27 fighters will battle for air superiority and back up an amphibious landing in a mock invasion of Taiwan. Convinced that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian will push for statehood during his second four-year term, China is readying for a showdown with the island which Beijing has claimed as its own since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Booming...

****Koo says Chen would have won by 100,000 without law change*** Senior officials and lawyers of the governing Democratic Progressive Party rebutted charges by pan-blue lawmakers and an Academia Sinica (’†‰›Œ¤‹†‰@) researcher that the result of the March 20 presidential election was determined by widespread "vote rigging" as "entirely without any foundation in fact." Incumbent President Chen Shui-bian (’…G) and Vice President Annette Lu (˜CG˜@) of the DPP won the poll by less than 30,000 votes by snaring 6.47 million votes or 50.12 percent of the ballots compared to 6.44 million for the pan-blue ticket of Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan...

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Having struggled through weeks of political crises and angry street protests, Taiwan's vibrant democracy begins a recount of the presidential election vote today. But no evidence has surfaced that might undo incumbent Chen Shui-bian's narrow victory. The drama that some liken to the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election has kept the island of 23 million on tenterhooks, but rival candidate Lien Chan's challenge appears to be sputtering, and people who were once in the streets yelling are now yawning. The opposition has yet to provide compelling evidence of irregularities in the March 20 election,...

2004-03-30 / Bloomberg / By William Pesek Jr. "I never staged this shooting incident and there's nothing to hide." It's not a defense Chen Shui-bian hoped to be offering a week after his re-election as Taiwan's president. Yet there he was Saturday, struggling to convince this island's 23 million he didn't fake an assassination attempt to win sympathy votes. To no avail. Taipei is rife with rumors about "Bulletgate." And the controversy speaks volumes about Chen's lack of credibility with voters. "It really is like one of the Oliver Stone movies," said William Chiu, 48, one of 500,000 protesters who...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney started a three-day visit to China Tuesday aimed at keeping a lid on tension between China and Taiwan and jump-starting talks to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions. In his first closed-door meeting after arriving from Tokyo, Cheney reassured Chinese leaders that the United States did not support Taiwan independence and would oppose unilateral steps by either side, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. But Washington is increasingly concerned by China's build-up of ballistic missiles capable of striking Taiwan, and Cheney was expected to raise the issue when talks resume on Wednesday. China,...

US expert investigates shooting on Chen A top U.S. forensic expert and veteran of high-profile cases such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial said he discovered on Friday new clues to the mysterious shooting on Chen Shui-bian. Within hours of arriving in Taiwan, Henry Lee said his team had re-examined the bullets and casings used in the shooting that lightly wounded Chen and had found distinct markings. Lee will visit the scene of the March 19 shooting in the southern town of Tainan and the hospital where Chen Shui-bian was treated after suspicions were raised on the March 19 shooting....

NO MATTER how the dispute over Taiwan's presidential election is resolved, it has become increasingly clear that the 'One China' principle is unravelling. The concept of One China has dominated Asian international relations for 30 years as the centrepiece of Beijing's foreign policy and a mainstay in the foreign policies of the United States and most nations in Asia and Europe - though there has never been a widely accepted definition of what it means. Today, Beijing says One China means Taiwan belongs to China. The US says the question of Taiwan's sovereignty is unsettled. Japan, which ruled Taiwan from...

Taiwan's President Maintains Hard Line Mon Mar 29,10:05 PM ET By Philip P. Pan and David E. Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 29 -- President Chen Shui-bian declared Monday that his narrow reelection victory was a mandate from voters to press ahead with an aggressive agenda to develop Taiwan as an "independent, sovereign country" despite the risk of war with China. In his first interview since an attempt on his life and an election his opponents are contesting, Chen vowed to go forward with plans to write a new constitution for Taiwan within two years, a move...

MARCH 31, 2004 Taiwan President rejects China's 'one country, two systems' formula Chen vows to create new Constitution TAIPEI President Chen Shui-bian vowed to go forward with plans to write a new Constitution for Taiwan within two years, a move China has said could compel it to seize the island by force. In his first interview since his re-election on March 20, Mr Chen also said China's 'one country, two systems' formula would never be accepted by Taiwan - a 'sovereign country' governed by a president - since it could not even work well in Hong Kong, which is only...

<p>TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 30 (UPI) -- Taiwan's re-elected, but disputed, President Chen Shui-bian inflamed mainland China Tuesday with remarks the island is an "independent country."</p> <p>Despite his remarks, his nationalistic goals suffered a setback when the Caribbean island of Dominica Tuesday switched diplomatic recognition to China, reducing the number of international pro-independence allies to 26.</p>

U.S. Crime Specialists Examine Chen's Abdominal Wound By Koh Chin Ling March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Forensic specialist Cyril Wecht, one of three U.S. crime-scene specialists investigating the assassination attempt on Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, said the team interviewed Chen and determined his abdominal wound was caused by gunshot. ``We looked at the wound, we took some photographs, and we made some measurements,'' Wecht said in an interview broadcast on television in Taipei. ``It's consistent with that of a gunshot wound.'' Wecht, ballistic expert Michael Haag, and criminal- investigation specialist Timothy Palmbach are assisting Henry Lee, the defense forensic witness to...