President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) questioned Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) loyalty to the country yesterday, saying that Ma "would meet the chief of a special administrative region of China, but not Taiwan's president."
Chen was speaking last night at a campaign rally for the DPP's Taipei City mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
"Ma has visited Hong Kong twice in the past four years," Chen said, "but when the Presidential Office invited him to give a briefing about his trip to me, he just answered that he had no time."
Chen, who served as Taipei mayor from 1994 to 1998 but lost his re-election bid to Ma, therefore urged Taipei residents to question Ma's loyalty.
"I hope all of you will question Mayor Ma for me about why he had time to visit Hong Kong, PRC territory, and was willing to meet its chief Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), but refused to go the Republic of China's Presidential Office to talk with Taiwan's president, making the excuse that he had no time?" Chen said.
Chen said that he had applied to visit Hong Kong twice but both applications were rejected.
"The first time, they said that I was the incumbent Taipei mayor so I was not welcome," Chen told over 10,000 supporters.
"The second time, when I lost the mayoral election in 1998, they again refused to let me visit, citing the reason that I was `an important person of Taiwan,'" the president said.
"Later I found that the real reason they did not let me visit Hong Kong," Chen said, "was because I firmly oppose China's `one China policy' and oppose Beijing's `one country, two systems' formula."
"They didn't let me go because A-bian insists that Taiwan must go its own way to create its own future," Chen said to loud cheers.
Rallies involving the president are seen by the DPP as a major factor in boosting Lee's weak support in Taipei. There was, however, debate during this week's DPP Central Standing Committee meeting about whether the president might be risking joining the campaign too early.
In the face of the DPP's pulling out all the stops to mobilize support Ma has been adopting a low-profile strategy, holding soft activities to avoid intensifying the campaign atmosphere. This might play into Lee's hands, allowing him to increase his support.
In contrast to the DPP's raucous campaign rally last night, Ma's staff held a concert at the Ta-an Forest Park, in which Ma sang old songs and had chatted with supporters but refused to discuss political issues.
As well as the president, Lee's rally last night also saw other DPP heavyweights such as Taipei County Commissioner Su Chen-chang (
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