Nationalist Party

BEIJING - The last time leaders of the Nationalist Party were in China, they were in the south and on the run. It was late 1949 and the Nationalist - or KMT - Party of Chiang Kai-shek had just lost the civil war to the Communists. Chiang and his followers didn't stop running until they had fled the mainland for Taiwan. Now, 56 years later, the KMT leadership is back for the first time on Chinese soil, being welcomed to Beijing by the Communist Party during a symbolic visit that could generate enough goodwill to lead to a breakthrough in the tense China-Taiwan relationship.

In light of the North Korean nuclear threat, Sino-Japanese territorial disputes and conflicting claims in the South China Sea, Taiwan appears to be the exception in a region of rising tensions. Beijing claims that Taiwan is part of China but has been willing to take a long-term approach in the hope that enhancing cross-Strait ties will bring the island into China peacefully. Taiwanese have shown little interest in provoking the mainland by declaring permanent independence. At the same time, they will not risk their freedom or sovereignty though closer political ties to the mainland.

TAIPEI -- Rejecting threats from China, Taiwanese voters swept pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian into the presidency yesterday, breaking the Nationalist Party's half-century grip on power here and setting the stage for a possible showdown with Beijing. The victory of Chen's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the Nationalists, or Kuomintang, completed one of Asia's great success stories of the past two decades: Taiwan's transition from an authoritarian nation to a genuine democracy.

BEIJING - The last time leaders of the Nationalist Party were in China, they were in the south and on the run. It was late 1949 and the Nationalist - or KMT - Party of Chiang Kai-shek had just lost the civil war to the Communists. Chiang and his followers didn't stop running until they had fled the mainland for Taiwan. Now, 56 years later, the KMT leadership is back for the first time on Chinese soil, being welcomed to Beijing by the Communist Party during a symbolic visit that could generate enough goodwill to lead to a breakthrough in the tense China-Taiwan relationship.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- One day after its humiliating defeat at the polls, Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party fell into disarray with President Lee Teng-hui resigning its leadership as thousands of angry members attacked party headquarters with rocks and eggs. Shouting "Step down, Lee Teng-hui! Resign!" and waving red-white-and-blue national flags, demonstrators faced off against police armed with shields, clubs and water cannons in the center of the capital. "I'm still angry," yelled an elderly woman as she glared at riot police defending the gray stone building that houses the Nationalist Party headquarters and waved her party identification card furiously.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Nationalist Party challenger unseated Taipei's popular mayor yesterday in a suspenseful election that was closely watched abroad because of its possible effects on Taiwan's relations with mainland China.Defeating the incumbent by a surprising 51 percent to 46 percent, according to unofficial results, the challenger, Ma Yin-jeou, 48, established himself as a new star of the Nationalist Party."It doesn't matter whether you voted for me or not, my victory is everybody's victory," he said last night in a speech to tens of thousands of wildly celebrating supporters in midtown Taipei.

LAST YEAR, voters on Taiwan spurned the intimidation of Communist China to elect President Chen Shui-bian, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caters to native Taiwanese ethnicity and calls for independence. Since then, President Chen has presided over the worst economic performance in a half century of de facto autonomy. He was thwarted by the legislature dominated by the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, which had ruled Taiwan and, before that, China. The KMT agrees with Beijing that Taiwan is part of China, insisting that the mainland throw off Communist Party rule before implementing unification.

THE CHARTER of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan calls for independence of the island from China. This is anathema to the Nationalist Party, which has governed since the end of World War II, and to the Communists ruling the rest of China. Both agree that Taiwan is part of China and must be reunited someday.So both were shocked that the DPP won more than half the positions contested in local elections in November and now controls the local governments of nearly three-fourths of the 21 million Taiwanese people.

CHEN Shui-bian overthrew not the Communist Party of China in Taiwan's presidential election Saturday but the Nationalist Party on Taiwan. The ghost he vanquished was not that of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, who died in 1976, but of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who died a year earlier. The voting turned not on relations with the mainland but on throwing Taiwan's own rascals out of power. If President Jiang Zemin of China has good intelligence -- and there is no reason to suppose otherwise -- he knows as well as Mr. Chen that this was no referendum on sovereignty.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Beijing issued a strong warning yesterday that it would not tolerate turmoil here, as hundreds of stone-throwing protesters fought with the riot police in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the official certification of President Chen Shui-bian as the winner of a disputed election last Saturday. After restricting itself for a week to bland comments that it was watching the wrangling over who won the election, the policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing warned in a statement yesterday, "We will not sit back and look on unconcerned should the post-election situation in Taiwan get out of control, leading to social turmoil, endangering the lives and property of Taiwan compatriots and affecting stability across the Taiwan Straits."

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Beijing issued a strong warning yesterday that it would not tolerate turmoil here, as hundreds of stone-throwing protesters fought with the riot police in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the official certification of President Chen Shui-bian as the winner of a disputed election last Saturday. After restricting itself for a week to bland comments that it was watching the wrangling over who won the election, the policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing warned in a statement yesterday, "We will not sit back and look on unconcerned should the post-election situation in Taiwan get out of control, leading to social turmoil, endangering the lives and property of Taiwan compatriots and affecting stability across the Taiwan Straits."

SPLIT, Croatia - Croatia's former governing party, ousted almost four years ago in disgrace over allegations of corruption and its hard-line nationalist policies, is making a comeback and is favored to win parliamentary elections held yesterday. Opinion polls predicted that the party, the Croatian Democratic Union, would win the largest number of seats in the first legislative elections in four years. While no group is expected to gain an absolute majority, and the winner may have to form a coalition government, victory for the nationalist party would be a remarkable change in its political fortunes.

LAST YEAR, voters on Taiwan spurned the intimidation of Communist China to elect President Chen Shui-bian, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caters to native Taiwanese ethnicity and calls for independence. Since then, President Chen has presided over the worst economic performance in a half century of de facto autonomy. He was thwarted by the legislature dominated by the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, which had ruled Taiwan and, before that, China. The KMT agrees with Beijing that Taiwan is part of China, insisting that the mainland throw off Communist Party rule before implementing unification.

HONG KONG - Taiwan's Nationalist Party was routed yesterday in legislative elections on the island, completing a political fall from grace that began when it lost the presidency last year. The Nationalists, who governed Taiwan for a half-century after fleeing there from China after a civil war in 1949, lost 42 seats, and their majority, in the 225-seat legislature. The Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian gained 21 seats and supplanted the Nationalists as the biggest party, with 87 seats.

NEW YORK - For more than 40 years, the FBI pursued a secret campaign of surveillance, disruption and repression against Puerto Rico's independence movement - but only now is the full story coming out. The revelations began in March, when FBI Director Louis J. Freeh stunned a congressional budget hearing by conceding that his agency had violated the civil rights of many Puerto Ricans over the years and had engaged in "egregious illegal action, maybe criminal...

CHEN Shui-bian overthrew not the Communist Party of China in Taiwan's presidential election Saturday but the Nationalist Party on Taiwan. The ghost he vanquished was not that of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, who died in 1976, but of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who died a year earlier. The voting turned not on relations with the mainland but on throwing Taiwan's own rascals out of power. If President Jiang Zemin of China has good intelligence -- and there is no reason to suppose otherwise -- he knows as well as Mr. Chen that this was no referendum on sovereignty.

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The Scots will be voting for their first Parliament since 1707. The Welsh will be electing the first one they have ever had. And Prime Minister Tony Blair will be looking for validation of his 2-year-old government's transformation of how the British govern themselves.The elections of members of the two new legislatures and of 362 councils across Britain today are being called the most important midterm balloting in the country's history. In addition to providing the traditional barometer of a government, this year's elections confirm Britain's move to decentralize political authority.

HONG KONG - Taiwan's Nationalist Party was routed yesterday in legislative elections on the island, completing a political fall from grace that began when it lost the presidency last year. The Nationalists, who governed Taiwan for a half-century after fleeing there from China after a civil war in 1949, lost 42 seats, and their majority, in the 225-seat legislature. The Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian gained 21 seats and supplanted the Nationalists as the biggest party, with 87 seats.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- One day after its humiliating defeat at the polls, Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party fell into disarray with President Lee Teng-hui resigning its leadership as thousands of angry members attacked party headquarters with rocks and eggs. Shouting "Step down, Lee Teng-hui! Resign!" and waving red-white-and-blue national flags, demonstrators faced off against police armed with shields, clubs and water cannons in the center of the capital. "I'm still angry," yelled an elderly woman as she glared at riot police defending the gray stone building that houses the Nationalist Party headquarters and waved her party identification card furiously.

TAIPEI -- Rejecting threats from China, Taiwanese voters swept pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian into the presidency yesterday, breaking the Nationalist Party's half-century grip on power here and setting the stage for a possible showdown with Beijing. The victory of Chen's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the Nationalists, or Kuomintang, completed one of Asia's great success stories of the past two decades: Taiwan's transition from an authoritarian nation to a genuine democracy.