Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) will return to Taipei tonight after a controversial eight-day visit to China. On Thursday, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will begin his tour of China. It is to be expected that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) will roll out the red carpet for Soong and hold talks with him on a party-to-party basis, just as he did with Lien.

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By the Liberty Times editorial
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his gang started the journey to China as if they were a group of homesick travelers returning to the embrace of the motherland. The closer they got to Beijing and to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the more excited they got. At Peking University, a thrilled Lien declared: "I am very happy that at this moment of changing history, I got onto this bus." Lien said his trip to China was propelled by the backing of strong popular will. Actually, not only do most people in Taiwan not only not identify with Lien's behavior, they also believe it was shameful the way he is selling out Taiwan.

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By Yeh Yu-lan 葉毓蘭
On April 26, police officers were faced with an awful job when hundreds of pan-blue and pan-green supporters led by dozens of legislators congregated and clashed at CKS International Airport. Although 3,500 police officers were mobilized to maintain security, they failed to contain the violent mob.

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A French `no' vote on the EU Constitution will help undermine President Jacques Chirac and the Franco-German alliance that has served France, Germany and Europe so badly in recent years
By Melvyn Krauss
Voting "no" on the EU Constitution would not constitute a French "no" to Europe, as some believe; it would merely be a vote of no confidence in Jacques Chirac's presidency. Anything that diminishes Chirac -- who has weakened the EU by pushing a protectionist, corporate state model for Europe and telling the new smaller members to "shut up" when they disagreed with him -- must be considered good news for Europe and European integration.

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The US put China on notice last week that its patience is running out on a host of trade complaints.

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For the first time in generations, Iraq will be ruled by the majority Shiites, who face the daunting task of establishing trust with the Sunnis and Kurds
By John F. Burns
It was a moment for which Iraqis had yearned for generations: Parliamentary approval of a government with a mandate won at the ballot box. For Shiites, especially, last Thursday's vote was a moment in history: For generations, going back to the Ottoman imperial rule that ended with World War I, Shiites, accounting for 60 percent of the population, have been a political underclass. Until US troops toppled former president Saddam Hussein two years ago, political power rested with the Sunni minority, accounting for no more than 15 percent to 20 percent of the country's 25 million people.

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By Gregory Lloyd
I must disagree with the conclusions made in your article about the airport scuffles ("Analysts say scuffles show Taiwan's weaknesses," April 27, page 3). The analyst quoted in the story obviously takes a single point of view and doesn't take his own advice of trying to understand the point of view of others.

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By Steve Hoover
Twice rejected by the Taiwanese populace, his access to Taiwan's fortune cut to buy a toadying constituency, party coffers being depleted to buy a spot in the limelight -- what's an incapable orator, bumbling premier and placeholder vice president to do to achieve respectability?

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