Mainland China

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- People used to take notice of Hans Chien after he opened Caveman Restaurant in Beijing last year; doing business in China was all the rage, and the restaurant was a great topic of conversation when he returned home to Taiwan on vacation.Now, however, many of his friends think he's nuts for wanting to live "over there." Not that business in Beijing is bad -- it's booming -- but Taiwanese have started to look at mainland China a bit differently."All my friends have changed their opinion over the past year," the 33-year-old entrepreneur said.

HONG KONG -- Liu Jinling felt like a criminal when she crossed the border from mainland China into Hong Kong. She tried to hide the bulge in her belly by wearing a loose-fitting blouse. She carried a big purse close to her body. The Hong Kong immigration official behind the counter stared at her for a long time, considered her tourist visa, and asked whom she was coming to see. "I knew he was suspicious," Liu said. "When I walked away he turned to look at me again. I was so scared. I thought he must have regretted letting me pass and was going to drag me back."

United Airlines wants to become the first carrier linking Washington, D.C., with direct service to the capital of China. United will ask permission to serve Beijing from the airline's hub at Washington Dulles International Airport. The carrier would be the first offering nonstop service between the two capitals. United said yesterday that details of its plans will be part of an application filed today with the Department of Transportation. Tomorrow is the deadline for carriers to request additional access to mainland China.

United Airlines wants to become the first carrier linking Washington, D.C., with direct service to the capital of China. United will ask permission to serve Beijing from the airline's hub at Washington Dulles International Airport. The carrier would be the first offering nonstop service between the two capitals. United said yesterday that details of its plans will be part of an application filed today with the Department of Transportation. Tomorrow is the deadline for carriers to request additional access to mainland China.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan said in an interview here yesterday that he planned a referendum for March calling on China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and demanding that China renounce the use of force against the island. Chen's insistence on holding a referendum is likely to heighten tensions across the Taiwan Strait - already at their highest point in several years - and comes at an awkward time for President Bush, who will receive China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, at the White House next week.

HONG KONG - SARS appears to be spreading in Taiwan as fast or faster than anywhere except mainland China, prompting the World Health Organization to prepare to send a team to the island despite the risk that this could cause diplomatic tensions with Beijing. Taiwan announced yesterday that it had 11 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 100, a total that has more than tripled in the past 10 days. Five people died of the disease yesterday in Taiwan, raising the island's death toll from the disease to eight.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Chen Shui-bian began his second four-year presidential term today, using his inaugural address to offer a new beginning in the island's long and troubled relations with mainland China. Speaking at the end of a rain-dampened morning of inaugural festivities, Chen said that despite the divergence of the political systems over the decades, rapprochement between them was possible. "If both sides are willing ... then [the two sides] can seek to establish relations in any form whatsoever," he said.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- With his coiffed hair, snazzy clothes and deftly managed call-in show, Lee Tao easily lives up to his unofficial billing as Taiwan's Larry King.For the past month, he has concentrated his show on Taiwan's imminent parliamentary elections, talking to people about the issues, the broken promises and the money politics that every democracy delights in discussing.Saturday's vote, however, is more than a routine election.Instead it marks the start of a four-month period that will transform Taiwanese politics, capping the island's 10-year changeover from dictatorship to full democracy.

George Yen, a retired engineer who served in the Republic of China's National Assembly for more than four decades, died of pneumonia April 23 at Mercy Medical Center. The Towson resident was 101. Family members said he was born in Imperial China and counted the philosopher Confucius among his ancestors. Mr. Yen graduated from what was then called Peiping University and earned a graduate engineering degree at the University of Ghent in Belgium. A civil engineer, he oversaw transportation in 10 of 35 Chinese provinces before and during World War II. He was a founder and former president of the regional carrier Far East Airlines, according to the family and a friend.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong officials struggled yesterday to persuade other countries not to ban travelers leaving here, as cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome continued to grow. Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, announced at a news conference yesterday evening that the family members of SARS victims would not be allowed to board departing flights. The government has twice ordered such family members to stay home, and restrictions on their movements have been tightened. Tung also said the territory would work with airlines to develop a system for taking the temperature of all passengers before allowing them to board planes.

George Yen, a retired engineer who served in the Republic of China's National Assembly for more than four decades, died of pneumonia April 23 at Mercy Medical Center. The Towson resident was 101. Family members said he was born in Imperial China and counted the philosopher Confucius among his ancestors. Mr. Yen graduated from what was then called Peiping University and earned a graduate engineering degree at the University of Ghent in Belgium. A civil engineer, he oversaw transportation in 10 of 35 Chinese provinces before and during World War II. He was a founder and former president of the regional carrier Far East Airlines, according to the family and a friend.

WASHINGTON -- Chinese President Hu Jintao promised President Bush long-term economic reforms yesterday but offered no immediate concessions on the trade and security issues that threaten the two countries' relationship. Hailed with a 21-gun salute on a sunlit White House lawn, Hu declared that China was committed to overhauling gradually the export-driven economy that has piled up a $202 billion trade surplus with the United States and brought calls in Congress for protectionist retaliation.

LIUZHOU, China - Taiwan and China might be rattling sabers, targeting missiles and threatening war, but Wang Qing-feng isn't letting that stop him from looking for love. After his most recent relationship went sour, the 50-year-old Taiwanese telecom engineer decided to take his quest for a young, good-looking wife across the Taiwan Strait. Arriving in this southern Chinese city, the divorced man with modest biceps and a penchant for muscle shirts found no shortage of candidates. Thanks to a matchmaking service, dozens of women quickly lined up outside his hotel room, waiting for their 15 minutes to chat with Wang and decide whether there's any spark.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Chen Shui-bian began his second four-year presidential term today, using his inaugural address to offer a new beginning in the island's long and troubled relations with mainland China. Speaking at the end of a rain-dampened morning of inaugural festivities, Chen said that despite the divergence of the political systems over the decades, rapprochement between them was possible. "If both sides are willing ... then [the two sides] can seek to establish relations in any form whatsoever," he said.

QUEMOY, Taiwan - If China were ever to carry out its threat to invade Taiwan, it might begin with the occupation of this small island, separated from the mainland by little more than a mile of peaceful blue water. Like the island of Taiwan itself, Quemoy has been fought over for 400 years by a succession of powers as near as the mainland and as remote as the Netherlands. In the past half-century, Quemoy was occupied by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, the losers in China's civil war, and then barraged by Communist China's artillery and by pro-Communist propaganda (literally, with canisters containing leaflets)

TAIPEI, Taiwan - President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan said in an interview here yesterday that he planned a referendum for March calling on China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and demanding that China renounce the use of force against the island. Chen's insistence on holding a referendum is likely to heighten tensions across the Taiwan Strait - already at their highest point in several years - and comes at an awkward time for President Bush, who will receive China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, at the White House next week.

HONG KONG -- The respiratory disease known as SARS is beginning to kill younger and healthier adults, as medical treatments are proving less effective than originally hoped, health officials here said yesterday. Until the weekend, those who died from severe acute respiratory syndrome had mostly been older than 60, and often were suffering from other health problems. But eight people with the disease died here this weekend, and five of them were between 35 and 52 and did not have medical conditions that might have been contributing factors, said Dr. Liu Shao-haei, a senior manager of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority.

IF TIMING matters, then the World Health Organization's rejection this week of Taiwan's bid to join it as an "observer" is particularly egregious - and unhealthy for the entire world. In a sense, there's not much new here. This was the seventh straight year that China blocked a move by Taiwan to participate in the United Nations' health agency. China, of course, claims Taiwan as one of its provinces, and as a result the island lost its United Nations seat more than 30 years ago and few nations now recognize it as a state - despite a half-century of separate rule on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

IF TIMING matters, then the World Health Organization's rejection this week of Taiwan's bid to join it as an "observer" is particularly egregious - and unhealthy for the entire world. In a sense, there's not much new here. This was the seventh straight year that China blocked a move by Taiwan to participate in the United Nations' health agency. China, of course, claims Taiwan as one of its provinces, and as a result the island lost its United Nations seat more than 30 years ago and few nations now recognize it as a state - despite a half-century of separate rule on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

HONG KONG - SARS appears to be spreading in Taiwan as fast or faster than anywhere except mainland China, prompting the World Health Organization to prepare to send a team to the island despite the risk that this could cause diplomatic tensions with Beijing. Taiwan announced yesterday that it had 11 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 100, a total that has more than tripled in the past 10 days. Five people died of the disease yesterday in Taiwan, raising the island's death toll from the disease to eight.