March 20, 2000 --- Soong's Sequence
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Soong’s Sequence

15% mainlanders and 85% of native Taiwanese shared the island. For 55 years, mainlander controlled army, police, country security, governed officers, and medium.

But now, polity would change over new president’s policy. What’s we worried is that Soong’s sequence was fermented by Taiwan mainlanders.

The following reports could find Taiwan internal problems in the near future.

March 20, 2000 ---
Amid a second consecutive day of enraged protests, Kuomintang Chairman Lee Teng-hui announced yesterday he would tender his resignation as party leader to the party’s National Congress in September.

The move was believed to be in response to the KMT’s overwhelming loss in Saturday’s presidential election as well as to ensuing protests, during which several thousand demonstrators surrounded and attacked the party’s headquarters on Chungshan South Road.

The situation prompted the party’s powerful Central Standing Committee to call an emergency meeting for yesterday afternoon, during which Lee’s announcement was made.

However, due to the crowd of protesters besieging the party headquarters throughout the day, many members of the committee --- including Lee himself ---

were unable to enter, and Lee’s intention to resign was made by spokesman Huang Hei-chen.

In his message, Lee called for a complete overhaul of the party’s leadership, saying that the party’s Secretary-General Huang Kun-hui and Assistant Secretary-General Hwang Jen-shyong must also step down. 

“We must face the facts. We must recognize the current situation,” Lee’s message read.

Following the party’s dismal results Saturday, Lee had originally said he would stay out his term through next year.

Yesterday, he had apparently changed his mind, as the angry protesters continued to throw eggs and chant anti-Lee slogans in front of the party building and, earlier around the official presidential residence a few blocks away on Aikuo West Road.

The emergency meeting, originally called for 3 p.m., had to be delayed an hour and was eventually downgraded to an “informal discussion” due to Lee’s absence. The demonstrators outside blamed Lee for the victor of Democratic Progressive Party nominee Chen Shui-bian.

Many were said to be supporters of independent candidate James Soong who were angry that the KMT chairman had not offered the party’s nomination to the popular ex-governor.

Party leaders in Taiwan often resign following large electoral defeats. The loss suffered by DPP candidate Peng Ming-min in the 1996 presidential race resulted in the immediate resignation of then-chairman Shih Ming-the.

Failed KMT candidate Lien Chan, who was also missing from yesterday’s meeting, informed the committee via fax that he would step down immediately from his post as the party’s vice chairman due to his humiliating defeat in Saturday’s vote.

Lien echoed Lee’s call for a changing of the guard among the top KMT officialdom and offered a plan for party reform, which included focusing more on grassroots supports and seeking wider consensus in party decisions.

“We may have lost, but we cannot lose our ideals. Looking back on history, we suffered defeats before, but we have always sprung back up again,” Lien said in his message.

Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou announced in press conference held earlier in the day that he would be leaving his post with the Central Standing Committee, effective immediately, and asked the rest of the committee to likewise.

Ma, who himself defeated president-elect Chen in the 1998 mayoral election, said the tremendous electoral pounding in the election indicated a need for fresh leadership.