Tue, Dec 05, 2006 page1

• Annette Lu won't back down on China

  'PREPARED' The vice president said that her stance on Taiwanese independence would not change or be toned down in the event that she becomes president

  • BLOOMBERG
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  Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who will replace President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) if he succumbs to a series of corruption scandals, said she will maintain her stance that Taiwan is independent from China.

  "We've been independent for decades," Lu said in an interview last Thursday at the Presidential Office. "Unfortunately, world leaders are blind to the fact that Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China and never has been."

  Lu's stance raises the stakes as Chen struggles to stay in office following his wife's indictment last month for fraud.

  China has labeled Lu "the scum of the Chinese nation."

  "There is no need for us to declare independence, because we are independent," Lu said.

  On Nov. 3, prosecutors indicted first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) on fraud charges and said they have enough evidence to charge Chen, although as president he is immune from prosecution. Chen said on Nov. 5 he would resign if his wife were convicted.

  Lu said she expected Chen to serve out the remaining 18 months of his term, unless the Taipei District Court finds his wife guilty of any of the fraud charges.

  "I'm very much familiar with all the national affairs," she said, "but it doesn't mean I intend to change my position."

  Analysts have said that if Chen were forced to resign and Lu replaced him, she would have to shed her confrontational attitude, especially toward China.

  "I think she will retreat from the front lines on those policy issues," said Yang Tai-shuenn (楊泰順), a political science professor at the Chinese Culture University. "Although she's outspoken on Taiwan independence, during her tenure of only one-and-a-half years she should know that she can't make radical changes."

  This is particularly true if Lu has political ambitions beyond May 2008, said Philip Yang (楊永明), political science professor at National Taiwan University.

  "She is unlikely to announce independence if she wants to run in the 2008 elections," Yang said.

  During the interview, Lu said she did not know if she would run for president in 2008.

  "Up until today, I have no such idea," she said.

  Asked if she would tone down her stance on Taiwanese independence if she became president, Lu said: "No, I don't have to. What I say is the reality."

  Lu described Taiwan and China as "relatives and neighbors." That formulation of cross-strait relations is considerably more provocative than the policy of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which maintains that Taiwan and China will reunite at some point in the future, when China is democratic and the wealth of both nations is comparable.

  KMT AND CHINA

  In recent years, China's leadership has warmed to KMT leaders, inviting several to China on official visits. Lu said this strategy was an attempt by China to boost the popularity of the KMT, which supports stronger ties with China, and hurt the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

  "They tried to undermine the leadership of President Chen," she said. "In a way they have succeeded."

  Lu said she did not want to get into an arms race with China and would prefer to use Taiwan's "soft power" -- a commitment to human rights and democracy -- to gain respect in the world and counter China's military threat.

  On the other hand, Lu said, Taiwan has a vital place in the world's supply chain of electronics and computer parts, and that gives it a larger role in the world economy.

  "Taiwan is as important to high-tech industries as the Middle East is to energy," she said.

  SCANDAL

  With the graft scandal spreading beyond the DPP, more than a dozen politicians are being investigated for how they used "special funds" given by the state to some 6,500 officials.

  KMT Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the party's expected presidential candidate in 2008, was questioned twice last month by prosecutors over his expenditures. Ma has denied the allegations and on Nov. 24 said he would quit as KMT chairman if indicted.

  Lu has also been investigated about the use of her special funds. But when asked if she would get in trouble for financial improprieties, she replied: "No, because I'm known to be not only an outspoken and honest person, I'm also clean. No one questions my cleanness."

  OUTSIDER

  Lu is one of the nation's most iconoclastic and toughest politicians. The 62-year-old lawyer, who earned degrees from the University of Illinois and Harvard, is a professional outsider, starting with her opposition to the authoritarian KMT government of the 1970s and 1980s.

  She spent five years in jail as a political prisoner in the 1980s, survived throat cancer and an assassination attempt on the eve of her re-election as vice president in 2004.

  "I am very courageous," she said. "I challenged the male chauvinist society very successfully. I survived carcinoma. At the age of 60 I was nearly assassinated. I'm prepared for whatever will happen to Taiwan and me."
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