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"He [Kang] is very keen on working," Chao said. "Another thing I consider amazing about him is that he has numerous [information] channels and sources."

A long-term politician, Kang has not always had a smooth path. In the opposition camp from the time of the tangwai (黨外) movement -- illegal and informal political groups outside the KMT before the lifting of martial law in 1987 -- and the early years of the DPP, he was conventionally regarded as a political moderate, which also meant being seen by more hardline elements as an appeaser.

He was elected as a Taipei City councilor in 1969 and as a legislator three years later. In the early 1980s, under the KMT's authoritarian regime, his faction's moderate political route toward reform clashed with the younger generation's more radical ideas. He was swamped by a wave of criticism from both the opposition elite and its rank and file and he lost his legislative seat in 1983.

Returning to the legislature in 1986 he enjoyed better relations with many KMT figures than most of his DPP comrades did, partly due to his more moderate style.

In 1989 he decided against running again for the legislature. In 1990, when then-president Lee set up the National Unification Council (國統會), the DPP, unhappy at the council's unification goal, boycotted the body but Kang joined it as an "individual."

The recently published An Account of Lee Teng-hui in Power (李登輝執政告白實錄), written by a senior reporter with Lee's assistance, says that when the council discussed the Guidelines for National Unification (國統綱領), the Presidential Office asked Kang to argue the pro-independence position in order to counter the remarks of pro-unification council members.

The fact that Lee nominated Kang as a Control Yuan member both in 1992 and 1998 has been interpreted by some to mean that Kang has become a trusted follower of Lee.