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| DPP picks Hsieh as chairman |
| Taiwan, 14.01.2008 |
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| Monday, January 14, 2008
AP
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party selected presidential candidate Frank Hsieh as its new chairman Monday, following the party's drubbing in legislative elections over the weekend.
Hsieh succeeds President Chen Shui-bian, who took responsibility for Saturday's legislative defeat at the hands of the main opposition Nationalists.
The opposition Nationalist Party won 81 seats in the 113-seat legislature in a victory that gave new momentum to its presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, for the presidential elections scheduled for March 22.
The DPP took only 27 seats, while the others went to four independents and a Nationalist ally.
The DPP picked Hsieh as its new chairman in the party's central executive committee meeting Monday morning. After the meeting, Hsieh expressed gratitude for unanimous support from the committee members.
"I am willing to take up responsibilities as party chairman," Hsieh said. "There are still many people supporting us, and we cannot let them down."
Hsieh adheres to the DPP's pro-independence line in principle but has made it clear he rejects some of Chen's hard-line policies, including moves to limit Taiwanese economic ties to rival China.
On the other hand, Ma has severely criticized Chen's efforts to underscore Taiwan's separate status from China and has said the moves have hurt the island's economy and ratcheted up tension in the perennially nervous Taiwan Strait.
Ma promotes closer trade ties with China, including removing restrictions on Taiwanese investment in the mainland, to boost the island's economy.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949.
Despite constant political tension at a high level, commercial relations between the two sides are booming, with bilateral trade - heavily in Taiwan's favor - running at around US$100 billion annually.
Following Saturday's legislative defeat for his party, Hsieh's road to the presidency became more difficult.
A poll released Monday by Taiwan's mass circulation China Times found Ma with 51 percent support and Hsieh with 20 percent. The poll said remaining voters were undecided. The telephone poll of 1,004 people was conducted Sunday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's stock market surged 2.8 percent early in Monday's session on expectations that the island's ties with China may improve now that the Nationalists have increased their chances of recapturing the presidency.
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