With the government's economic record threatening to become a major issue in the upcoming presidential election campaign, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) took issue with his critics to point out that the economy had not done nearly as badly as his blue-camp critics claim.
Talking to to a group of approximately 300 DPP grassroots in a closed-door meeting held in Taipei County, Chen said that in the global recession Taiwan had performed relatively well in comparison to other nations.
Citing statistics to support his statements, Chen said that Taiwan's economic growth rate last year was 3.54 percent while that of the US was 2.4 percent, Hong Kong was 2.3 percent, Japan was 0.3 percent and Singapore was 2.2 percent.
Taiwan was placed second only behind South Korea in the region, whose economic growth rate for last year was 6.38 percent.
Chen said that he was not trying to pretend that economic problems did not exist, but nevertheless sought to place Taiwan's troubles in perspective and exhorted DPP grassroots members not to be overly influenced by blue camp criticism.
"We must not lose faith in ourselves and give in to criticism from the opposition parties," Chen said.
"The opposition parties have lambasted the ruling administration for the past three years. We must not give in to their criticism but remain confidence in ourselves," said Chen, in his capacity as the party's chairman.
Chen called on party members to stand firm and not to be shaken by the opposition's non-stop criticism.
Since announcing their pairing for next March's presidential election, both KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), have focussed on criticism of the economy, calling Chen a "wastrel" who has taken the nation from prosperity to depression.
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), at a separate press conference held at the DPP's headquarters, asked who were the real "wastrels" and incompetents.
"It is the KMT ,which was thrown out of China," Lee said. "And it was Soong who split the KMT when he insisted on running his own campaign as an independent during the 2000 presidential election."
Lee also pointed out that Soong, during his tenure as Taiwan provincial governor, ran up a NT$300 billion deficit.
"What the DPP administration is trying to do now is mostly trying to clear the debt that was accumulated and left behind by the KMT regime," he said.
"It is Lien and Soong who therefore should address the question to themselves as to who are really the `wastrels' of the nation," he said.
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