Taiwan President Appoints New Premier, the Second Since May

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian named a new prime minister this morning, the second person to fill the post since Chen took office May 20.

Vice Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung will replace his boss, Tang Fei, whose resignation Tuesday capped weeks of speculation about his ill health and political clashes with Chen over key policy issues.

Chang, 62, is a veteran of Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, and inherits one of the island’s toughest jobs. The new prime minister must try to shore up an economy in which investor confidence has slipped badly since Chen’s election.

He also must help manage Taiwan’s prickly relations with China--a task that now may be even more difficult because of his party’s traditional stance in favor of Taiwanese independence.

Tang is a former defense minister and stalwart of the Nationalist Party, whose nominee was soundly defeated by Chen in the March presidential election.

Chen, the first president in Taiwan’s history who has not been a Nationalist Party member, had tapped Tang to lead a government of national unity drawing on politicians from all sides. The appointment helped calm fears of a volatile transition of power from outgoing President Lee Teng-hui.

But in recent weeks, disagreements between Chen and his premier have broken open in public, fueling conjecture that Tang, 68, would soon step down.

Tang cited the health problems that have dogged him this year as the reason for his resignation. In April, doctors removed a tumor from between Tang’s lungs. The growth turned out to be benign, but Tang checked out of the hospital too quickly after surgery and had to return because of an infection.

“I’ve requested [to step down] . . . many times in the hope that [Chen] will let me go home to rest,” the former pilot told a news conference after a meeting Tuesday with Chen. Because of a heavy workload, Tang said his health “has deteriorated recently.”

The former prime minister did not mention political reasons for his decision to leave office. But analysts say--and most Taiwanese assume--that the prime motivation behind his resignation was a row last week over construction of Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant, which Tang supports but Chen and his party oppose.

The controversy was widely seen as a test of Chen’s leadership in the face of a parliament still dominated by his political foes. On Saturday, Chen’s economic minister, Lin Hsin-yi, recommended that the new plant be scrapped. Lin told reporters today that he also will resign from his post.

“Chen Shui-bian had to make a choice, whether to support the DPP party agenda or to agree with Tang Fei’s proposals,” said Andrew Yang of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei, the capital. “Now he’s made his decision.”

Other analysts also point to tension over Taiwanese policy toward China. Tang, who was born on the mainland and advocates eventual reunification, preferred a more conciliatory approach than the more cautious tack adopted by Chen, whose party was founded on the principle of Taiwanese independence.

Tang had offered to resign once before, at the end of July, to take responsibility for a botched government rescue attempt of four workers who died in a flash flood. But Chen rejected his offer.