Chen may choose would-be assassin as new ambassador

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will nominate a man who once tried to assassinate the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) to serve as an ambassador-at-large, according to a local Chinese-language daily yesterday.

Peter Huang (黃文雄) is one of 12 nominees to serve as the country's envoys with no specified posting, the report said.

The paper quoted a Presidential Office official as saying that Huang was awarded the honor because of his association with various international human rights organizations. He is the most suitable person to speak out for the country, with the exception of well-known dissident writer Bo Yang (柏楊), who was not chosen due to his old age and poor health, the official added.

Huang was one of two would-be assassins who tried to kill then-vice premier Chiang Ching-kuo in 1970 at a Washington hotel when Chiang was there on an official visit. Huang fired the only shot in the assassination attempt, which was unsuccessful. Huang and his accomplice were arrested at the time but jumped bail later and fled the US.

He returned to Taiwan in 1996 after the statute of limitations on his charges had expired and was greeted as a hero by local pro-independence activists.

Huang was not among the nine ambassador-at-large nominees initially suggested by the foreign ministry but Chen added him to the list along with two others at the last minute.

The posts were introduced by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in the hope of tapping the talent and experience of the appointees to enhance the country's international profile. Lee gave the posts to business magnate Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), retired ambassador Loh I-cheng (陸以正), and Chiu Hungdah (丘宏達), a well-known scholar of international law.

Chen is expected to renominate both Koo and Loh. Chiu, who resigned in 1999 after Lee said that the relations between Taiwan and China were "special state-to-state" in nature, was not on the list of new nominees.