Chen visits Lien in hospital

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) met with KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) for the first time in almost seven months yesterday at an unlikely venue -- the Taipei Veterans' General Hospital.

Lien entered the hospital on Saturday afternoon after suffering from a fever and urinary problems. Chang Mau-song (張茂松), dean of the hospital, said Lien was suffering an acute urinary tract infection.

Chen arrived at the hospital around noon yesterday and stayed for about 20 minutes. It was Chen's first meeting with Lien since the two fell out last October over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant dispute.

Coincidentally, the meeting occurred on the first anniversary of Chen's inauguration. Chen's visit has also intensified media speculation on a possible KMT-DPP coalition government, which Chen has been hinting at in his recent speeches.

Since the nuclear power plant feud, Lien has moved closer to James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the KMT has been forging political alliances with Soong's People First Party (PFP) and the New Party.

The KMT now sees its political value rising as it is becoming increasingly likely that both the DPP and the PFP will try to woo KMT support to secure a coalition government after the year-end legislative and local government elections.

Soong, meanwhile, showed up at the hospital at around 11:20pm Saturday, but was unable to meet with Lien, who had gone to sleep in his VIP ward about two hours earlier. Soong insisted that Lien's aides should not wake him up. Instead, Soong said he would come again the next day.

But as of press time yesterday, Soong had not paid Lien another visit at the hospital.

The cause of Lien's ailment was unclear, but Chang, dean of the hospital, said it might have been caused by his overworking or insufficient water intake. Lien's physician Chang Hsin-shih (張心湜) said Lien was also suffering from benign prostate hyperplasia.

Due to the ailment, Lien had to cancel a scheduled visit yesterday to the Sixth Naphtha Cracker being built by the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑) in Yunlin County and a meeting with group vice chairman Wang Yung-tsai (王永在) there, where Lien was expected to take another swipe at Chen's DPP government for its failures.