TAIPEI, Dec. 29, 1999 ---

Taiwan will face five crises in the 21^st century, independent presidential candidate Hsu Hsin-liang warned on Wednesday.

Hsu, a former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) who quit the party in May to run in the 2000 presidential election, told a news conference that the first crisis Taiwan will face is a military conflict across the Taiwan Strait.

“My observation is that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are very likely to engage in a full-blown military confrontation in the new millennium because of their failure to conduct rational, peaceful dialogue, plus irresponsible political provocation,” Hsu explained.

The second crisis, he went on, will be the loss of many traditional industries because of economic globalization.

Hsu predicted that many of Taiwan’s traditional industries, which have little global competitiveness, will be edged out following the island’s entry into the World Trade Organization, a Geneva-based world trade regulatory body.

“The demise of such traditional industries will not only bring economic problems but may also trigger a series of social problems due to decreased job opportunities and a rising unemployment rate,” Hsu noted.

Third, Hsu said, Taiwan will face a crisis of ethnic conflict. According to Hsu, Taiwan originally had no ethnic hatred problems. However, he said Taiwan’s three major political parties --- the ruling Kuomintang, the pro-independence DPP, and the pro-unification New Party --- have been formed along an ethnic bias.

“Ethnic sentiment has repeatedly been stirred up in every political election of the past decade,” Hsu said, adding that he believes the same will happen in the presidential election scheduled for March 18, 2000.

“Unless we manage to form a new political party based on a wide social spectrum, the potential ethnic conflict crisis cannot be resolved,” Hsu claimed.

Taiwan’s fourth crisis, he continued, lies in the fact that new stories will come to overshadow local people’s everyday lives.

“News should have a shelf life of only one day. However, in Taiwan, all people live their lives guided by news stories,” Hsu lamented, adding that most of Taiwan’s active political figures lack a genuine, lasting concern for the island’s sustainable well being and development.

The fifth crisis Taiwan will face lies in the loss of national identity and values.

“Except for ethnic identification, there are many other values-related issues worth considering. However, politicization of ethnic issues has left little room for local people to think about other values-related subjects,” he noted.

In fact, Hsu said, the root cause of the first three crises lies in ethnic hatred, which he said mainly results from major local political parties’ irresponsible abuse of ethnic sentiment as an electoral campaign tactic.

After Beijing’s missile test on the first presidential election, the 88% native Taiwanese and 12% mainlander was boosting to hot point. However, democracy is Taiwanese people’s best choice. Either pro-independence DPP or pro-unification New Party are following this kind of motto.