Democratic Taiwan Legislature Expected

After making significant electoral gains against the ruling Nationalist Party, jubilant opposition leaders looked forward Sunday to the creation of Taiwan’s first genuinely democratic legislature, while the Nationalists’ secretary general offered to resign.

Hsu Hsin-liang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which won 50 seats in balloting for the new 161-member Legislative Yuan, said in an interview that he is “very happy” with the results. The Nationalists won 96 seats, retaining solid control but losing the overwhelming domination they have enjoyed for more than four decades.

“We will have a congress more like what the other democratic countries have,” Hsu said. “Until now, we haven’t had a modern democratic institution. It’s been one-party rule, and authoritarian rule . . . although we have had some (opposition) people in the congress or assembly. Now we will move toward a modern democratic institution.”

The Nationalist government, which fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communists on the Chinese mainland, kept control here partly by keeping in place many legislators elected in mainland provinces in 1947. For four decades, legislative elections in Taiwan involved only a small fraction of the total seats.

The Nationalist Party’s showing Saturday--it won 53% of the popular vote compared with 31% for the Democratic Progressives--is seen by all sides as unexpectedly poor.

“The results of the elections were not ideal,” James Soong, the Nationalists’ secretary general, told reporters. “The seats and the share of the votes are a warning for us. The party will try harder to satisfy the demands of the people for reform.”

Soong’s offer to resign to accept responsibility for the setback was reported by the Nationalist-controlled Central News Agency.

There was no immediate announcement whether the resignation would be accepted. The ruling party setback does not challenge the personal position of President Lee Teng-hui, who is also Nationalist Party chairman, but it could make it more difficult for him to get legislative programs approved.

The growing strength of the Democratic Progressive Party may add urgency to questions of what is the proper relationship of Taiwan to the Chinese mainland.

The Democratic Progressives favor permanent independence for Taiwan, while the Nationalists, still claiming to be the legitimate government of all China, believe the island could be reunited with the mainland after the collapse of communism that they predict will occur sooner or later in Beijing.

But Beijing has consistently said it may invade Taiwan if the island declares independence. The United States, while urging that the matter be settled peacefully, has taken the position that it is basically a dispute among Chinese on the mainland and in Taiwan and that they should be the ones to settle it.

It is not clear, however, that the United States will be able to permanently distance itself from this issue.

“U.S. policy, for some time, has tried to strike an appropriate balance between our interest in working with Taiwan and our interest in working with the mainland,” Robert G. Sutter, a specialist in international politics with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, said at a Sunday press conference given by a group of U.S. scholars who came to observe the election.

“We do this under a broad framework of a one-China policy. If decision-makers in Taiwan were to move in a direction . . . that would challenge this fundamental premise of one China, then this would complicate seriously American China policy.”