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Nationalists agree to lend talent to new Taiwanese president |
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April 11, 2000
TAIPEI, APR 10 (AP) - The Nationalists will allow one of their most popular members to cross party lines and serve as premier for Taiwan's newly elected president, a party spokesman said Monday.
The decision to let Defense Minister Tang Fei head the Cabinet ends two weeks of debate within the party about whether it should lend talent to the new leader, who trounced the Nationalist candidate in elections last month.
Because President-elect Chen Shui-bian has refused to negotiate with the party about Tang's new appointment, the minister will take the new job only as an individual, rather than as a Nationalist member, Nationalist spokesman Jason Hu said.
"We will observe the line of multiparty politics," Hu told reporters. "Without negotiations, we will not encourage or endorse the appointment."
Chen's small Democratic Progressive Party is a novice in defense, foreign and financial affairs and must count on talent from the Nationalists, who have ruled this island for about five decades.
Chen, who won the March 18 vote, apparently hopes Tang's appointment could help him push bills through the Nationalist-dominated legislature.
Tang, 68, has said he accepted the job at Taiwan's No. 3 leader because he felt obliged to help Chen stabilize relations with China.
China deeply distrusts Chen because he has been a vocal supporter of Taiwan independence. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing insists that the two sides reunify eventually or face war.
During the presidential campaign, Chen softened his pro-independence stance, saying Taiwan will not push for a formal break unless China attacks the island.
Tang, born in Jiangsu province in central Chinese, is known for his pro-unification stance.
Newspapers said Tang has decided to pick his deputy, Wu Shih-wen, to succeed him as the defense minister. Wu, another Nationalist member, refused to confirm the report.
Analysts say chief of the general staff, Tang Yao-ming, is expected to be retained to help stabilize the military during the power transfer.
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