Son of Former VP in Taiwan Shot in Head at Rally

The son of former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan was shot in the head and critically wounded while speaking Friday at a campaign rally in suburban Taipei, local media have reported.

Lien Chan and his son, Lien Sheng-wen, are both members of the ruling Nationalist Party, which is taking on the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party in polls Saturday that could have a significant impact on the government's policy of improving relations with China.

San Li TV and other outlets say that Lien Sheng-wen was taken to a Taipei hospital and is in stable condition. Lien Chan said his son was being treated in hospital without elaborating.

San Li said the police have a suspect in custody. The station said he had the nickname "horse face"; a sobriquet that would likely indicate his membership in one of Taiwan's criminal gangs.

In Saturday's election, Taiwanese will elect mayors and local officials in five large cities around the island. Lien Sheng-wen was speaking on behalf of a candidate for city councilor in Xinbei, a ring of suburbs around the capital.

Saturday's elections pit hopefuls from President Ma Ying-jeou's ruling Nationalists against rivals from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in three newly constructed constituencies - urban and rural agglomerations in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung - as well as existing voting areas in Taipei and its suburbs.

While the perennially hot-button issue of relations with China has not figured prominently in the campaigns, Saturday's winning party is likely to carry momentum into the presidential elections in March 2012, which will almost certainly feature Ma against a still unnamed DPP candidate.

Ma, 60, favors expanding Taiwan's already robust commercial relations with the mainland, and if re-elected, could begin political talks with Beijing.
In contrast, the DPP wants to slow the pace of economic convergence across the 100-mile- (160-kilometer-) wide Taiwan Strait and would almost certainly close the door on political dialogue with the mainland, from which Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. That might worry the United States, which has applauded Ma's success in helping to ease tensions in one of Asia's traditional flashpoints.

Saturday's elections are likely to draw some 65 percent of eligible voters, in keeping with Taiwan's highly politicized atmosphere. DPP wins seem assured in Kaohsiung and Tainan, key areas in the party's southern heartland, while the Nationalists look set to take the central constituency of Taichung. Taipei and Xinbei - what used to be called Taipei county - are regarded as tossups, meaning that much attention has been focused on which party will come up with at least three wins.

But local commentators may also point to vote totals in the five constituencies, which are home to about 60 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people. In the 2008 presidential elections, they broke 57-43 for the Nationalists.

This time the DPP looks poised to cross the 50 percent threshold, a sign that it may be ready to offer Ma a very difficult challenge in 2012.
A key question hanging over Saturday's poll is the performance of DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen in Xinbei and that of party veteran Su Tseng-chang in Taipei. The two are considered the DPP's leading presidential candidates in 2012, and with an eye to that election, party members will be looking closely to see which of them emerges from the voting in the stronger position.

Tsai, 54, was educated at Cornell Law School and the London School of Economics, and has considerable appeal to the centrist voters who put Ma over the top in 2008. By contrast, the 63-year-old Su is a grassroots politician who can energize his party's base and deflect the many barbs the Nationalists would throw his way in a presidential election campaign.