TAIWAN/CHINA: Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian was sworn in for a second four-year term yesterday at an inauguration ceremony overshadowed by the threat of war with China and nagging questions about his narrow victory, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Mr Chen, narrowly re-elected on March 20th after campaigning on a China-bashing platform, promised to try and improve ties with Beijing but also warned that Taiwan must guard itself against the threat from the mainland. "We love peace but we are also concerned about national security," he said. "Facing the other side's military build-up, we have to reinforce our national defences."
At the ceremony, soldiers twirled rifles, and children danced and bashed cymbals for a crowd of around 200,000. But spirits were dampened by a week of alarming threats from Beijing to use force if Mr Chen tried to push for independence for the island it considers a renegade province.
Mr Chen was keen to use his inauguration speech to smooth over relations with China, as well as reassure Washington that he was not bent on independence at all costs, which many fear could lead to war with China.
The President's election victory - by a razor-thin margin of 0.2 per cent - came one day after a shooting grazed his stomach and hit his running mate, Vice President Annette Lu, during a campaign parade. No suspects have been named, and opposition candidate Lien Chan won't accept the result until the incident has been investigated.
The week leading into the inauguration ceremony has seen some strongly worded attacks on Mr Chen by Beijing. "The 1.3 billion Chinese people will never allow Chen Shui-bian to gamble on the mainland's tolerance and seek Taiwan independence," ran one editorial by the official Xinhua news agency.