Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
controversial and divisive question in Taiwan, and what a person
thinks about it seems largely predetermined by his or her political
sympathies. Whatever the realities of the incident, Chen and Lu won
the vote by 30,000 votes and served four more years as president and
vice president.
Allegations against Chen and his family about financial wrongdoing
and money laundering emerged during Chen's second term. In
response, in the late summer and fall of 2006 Shih Ming-teh, one of
the “Kaohsiung Eight,” launched a popular campaign to oust Chen
from the presidency or pressure him into stepping down. (Ironically
enough, Chen Shui-bian had once been Shih Ming-teh's defense attor-
ney in the aftermath of the Kaohsiung Incident.) Shih's followers wore
the color red to symbolize their anger and to emphasize his contention
that his followers were united mainly by their frustration at Chen's
alleged corruption. The “Red Shirt” movement held marches through-
outTaiwanforatime,butitranoutofsteambytheendoftheyear
without succeeding in toppling Chen.
The entire movement was divisive and unnerving for the island.
People driving red cars in southern Taiwan had their vehicles vandal-
ized, and barbed wire barricades and jack-booted troops armed with
M-16 machine guns surrounded the Presidential Palace to protect it.
The movement brought to the surface some latent-foreign feelings.
The specter of increased ethnic tensions also loomed.
President Chen badly mismanaged Taiwan's economy, and this plus
widespread public suspicion that he or his family members had
indeed been involved in illegal financial transactions doomed the elec-
tion chances for Frank Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang, who ran on the
Democratic Progressive Party's presidential ticket. They were defeated
in the March 2008 presidential elections by the Kuomintang candi-
dates Ma Ying-jeou and Vincent Siew, who are now the President and
Vice President of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Ma and Siew have
dramatically decreased tensions with mainland China, and with their
Kuomintang super-majority in the island's legislature they now rule
the island without much effective opposition or criticism.
Former president Chen Shui-bian was arrested in November 2008
and remains in prison as of this writing. He and his sympathizers
suspect that his confinement and prosecution are part of a political
payback campaign waged against him by the Kuomintang, and there
have been some troubling indications that he and others implicated
inhiscasehavebeendeniedsomemeasureofdueprocess.Never-
theless, members of his family have pled guilty to financial wrong-
doing. The ultimate fate of Chen himself remains to be seen.
