Taipei

WHOEVER wins Taiwan's second free presidential election on Saturday, tensions will rise in the Taiwan Strait. Cool heads are needed on both sides. Communist China's biggest fear is that Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party will win. Beijing's crude gesture to prevent that only makes it more likely. Polls showed a three-way race too close to call when they ceased ten days before the vote. Mr. Chen's party's charter calls for Taiwan independence, which Beijing says would provoke invasion.

BEIJING -- In the diplomatic tinderbox of China's relationship with Taiwan -- where a few words could spark war -- sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. As China expanded its threat to attack Taiwan this week, two high-ranking mainland experts suggested that the island's next president could help defuse tensions by not repeating the words that heightened them in the first place. The offending words are "special state-to-state relations," implying sovereignty for Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- When a soldier hit him in the back with a rifle butt, Shih Ming-teh fell forward, handcuffed, and broke his teeth on the floor. The year was 1962 and fellow servicemen were interrogating him about his politics inside the capital's military jail.Shih, then a 21-year-old army cadet, would spend most of the next three decades in prison fighting for democracy and earning respect as Taiwan's longest-serving political prisoner.Today, he serves as a senator in Taiwan's legislature.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- China swiftly rejected Taiwan's attempt to repair relations yesterday, returning -- unopened -- a letter that explained President Lee Teng-hui's controversial call for "special state-to-state" ties.Lee's declaration this month that Taiwan should be recognized as a "special state" and not a renegade Chinese province infuriated Beijing, which interpreted it as a move toward independence. Beijing hinted that it would suspend planned talks unless Taipei "clarified" the statement.

THE THREAT of crisis between China and Taiwan receded when the party that has ruled the island since the 1940s made a surprising comeback in elections last week.After Taiwan went democratic in 1987 and the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, gave up its monopoly on power, the tide turned away from mainland refugees of 1949 toward native-born Taiwanese.When native Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, became mayor of Taipei in 1994, he also became favored to win the presidency in 2000 on a platform declaring independence.

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.

HONG KONG -- Fifteen million Taiwanese voters go to the polls today in an election that could shape both the future ofTaiwanese politics and the breakaway province's relations with mainland China.At stake are all 225 seats in the national legislature, mayoral posts in Taiwan's two biggest cities and city council slots. If the ruling Kuomintang Party (KMT) regains the mayor's office in the capital of Taipei and strengthens its slim majority in the legislature, it will consolidate its 49-year hold on power and continue its slow warming of relations with Beijing.

BEIJING -- In a gesture of conciliation to President Lee Teng-hui after his resounding election victory in Taiwan, China called yesterday for a meeting between Mr. Lee and its own president, Jiang Zemin, and for opening direct air, shipping and mail links across the Taiwan Strait."

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The confidence and bravado of many Taiwanese began to vanish yesterday in the face of an intensifying crisis over their future.With massive Chinese naval and air forces exercises due to start today, Chinese missiles still threatening to fall outside two main harbors and yet another powerful U.S. Navy group steaming toward the region, Taiwanese were hesitantly coming to the conclusion that an armed clash with China might be in the making.Many...

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Yu Hui-chen never considered herself a sophisticated investor, so when she heard that more military exercises were taking place and that U.S. aircraft carriers were on their way to Taiwan, she did the first thing any self-respecting Taiwanese investor would do: She panicked and dumped every stock she owned."