Reformers Get Boost as Taiwan Premier Quits

Premier Yu Kuo-hua announced his resignation Wednesday in a move that analysts said was a victory for Taiwan’s young reformers against the ruling Nationalist Party’s most powerful conservative.

Yu, 75, said on state television that he offered his resignation to President Lee Teng-hui, but there was no official word on whether it was accepted.

Yu said he resigned to ensure party unity, to allow a younger generation to take over and because he is confident that Lee, who took office last year after the death of former President Chiang Ching-kuo, had consolidated his power and that Taiwan politics are stable.

Analysts said Lee will probably accept the resignation of the premier, who has been under intense pressure to step down from young legislators in the party who fear he will be a liability in elections to Parliament in December.

“Legislators who want to run for office are afraid that Yu will be a disadvantage,” said Lu Ya-li, a professor of politics at National Taiwan University.

Yu took office in 1984 after serving as central bank governor. He has been under constant public criticism for his cautious approach to economic and political reform.

Newspapers have reported that Yu had reservations about President Lee’s foreign policy initiatives, which resulted this month in Taiwan officials going to Beijing for the first time to attend a meeting of the Asian Development Bank.