Panda politics in Taiwan

A police officer walks past the newly renamed National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, which once commemorated longtime strongman Chiang Kai-shek. (Nicky Loh/Reuters)

TAIPEI, Taiwan

THE IMPOSING Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall has just reopened here, after being shuttered for more than six months while Taiwan's government worked to diminish the legacy of the former dictator. When the scaffolding came down, the building's name had been changed to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. A huge green banner - green is the color of the Democratic Progressive Party, currently in power - bearing a symbolic white lily, now graces the 87 steps to the hall. Inside, the rather ostentatious statue of Chiang, who died in 1975, is partially obscured by kites and paper butterflies signifying freedom, and exhibits show popular protest movements of the past several decades. Even the uniformed figures who once attracted tourists with their Buckingham Palace-like changing of the guard are gone.

The re-education of Chiang Kai-shek hall is just one of the many effacings of the former dictator by the DPP. The international airport's name also was changed, and dozens of statues across the country have been pulled down. The actions at Memorial Hall, a cultural treasure Taiwan uses to show its face to the world, were broadly unpopular with residents aligned with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party, known locally as "Pan-Blue," and even vaguely embarrassing to all but the most rabid "Pan-Green" loyalists. "All this time wasted on a dead man," said our guide and interpreter, Jenny Lo, admittedly a Pan-Blue sympathizer. "Meanwhile people can't feed their families."

Economic worries, as much as the ham-handed actions by the DPP, are credited with the party's stunning losses in the country's legislative elections last month. According to the ministry of trade, GDP growth in Taiwan was 5.4 percent this year and is expected to drop to 4.5 percent in 2008 - respectable by Western standards but not compared with Taiwan's neighbors in the region. Unemployment is up, and average incomes have fallen in each of the eight years of DPP control.

In an interview with a group of journalists traveling with the East-West Center, a cultural exchange program, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou put it succinctly. "We are no longer an Asian tiger," he said. "We look more like a sick cat."

It's the economy, comrade.

Ma, a Harvard-educated former mayor of Taipei, is broadly favored to win the election on March 22. He has smoothly framed his support for closer ties with mainland China in economic development terms. He will push for more tourism, with direct flights and navigation, which foreign investors have been waiting for. He promises massive investments in infrastructure, including a new convention center, and to develop the financial services and medical sectors. Ma says such plans have stagnated while the current government has been distracted by constant sniping with Beijing.

To be sure, cross-strait relations are never far from the surface here. Mainland China still has some 1,300 missiles trained on its restive island neighbor. Mostly, however, petty and symbolic feuds stand in for any real aggression. Plans for the Olympic torch to stop in Taipei fizzled when Beijing insisted that no Taiwanese flags be flown along its path. Taiwan's Council of Agriculture even rejected a gift of two pandas from the mainland offered to a local theme park, lest the cute animals be used as a propaganda tool.

There is much attention to nomenclature on the island. Taiwan was allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2002, but only as "The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu," the unwieldy name (including three lesser islands) devised to avoid the politically sensitive term "Chinese Taiwan." Words like "sovereignty" and "identity" are loaded, considered stand-ins for the taboo "independence.'

Another possible over-reach by the DPP has been its plans to mount a popular referendum on election day supporting membership for Taiwan in the United Nations. Even if the referendum were to meet the high bar for ratification, the UN Security Council already has said it won't recognize the vote, and the Bush administration has strongly reiterated its opposition. Apparently rattled, DPP presidential candidate Hsieh Chang-ting now says he is in discussions with Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, about moving the referendum to a different date or finding another way to save face.

For all the green-blue polarization in the politics here (and the media), the most likely outcome of Taiwan's elections will be a continuation of the status quo. Even Ma says he will steer clear of either unification or independence. "We will definitely not rock the boat in regional waters," he said.

As such, the former Chaing Kai-shek hall is an apt metaphor for Taiwan. The dictator's name is gone and his role has been recast, but the hulking statue remains, gazing out at an uneasy land trying to find its place in the world.

RENÉE LOTH