TAIWAN: Taiwan's pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian is fighting to boost his administration's flagging fortunes after prime minister Frank Hsieh quit following a poor showing in local elections last month and plummeting approval ratings.
President Chen will now reshuffle his cabinet and try to boost his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) amid increasing unhappiness over the way he has handled domestic issues and his resistance to forging closer ties with the mainland.
China considers democratic Taiwan a renegade province that must eventually be reunified with the mainland and it has introduced controversial legislation, which it says allows it to take Taiwan by force if necessary.
The Chinese have hundreds of missiles pointed at Taiwan across the 100-mile channel that divides the two and the Strait is potentially one of the most explosive hotspots in Asia. The US has pledged to back Taiwan if China should ever invade.
Taiwan, which is officially named the Republic of China, split from China after the 1949 Communist revolution as Chiang Kai-shek's KMT troops retreated to the island.
In his New Year's address, Mr Chen warned Taiwan's economy should not be too dependent on China - comments widely read as a sign of tighter economic policy towards the mainland. The message irritated many business leaders on the island who want a warmer relationship with China.
Mr Hsieh quit after the DPP lost a lot of ground to the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) in local government elections last month.
KMT leaders made a number of high-profile visits to the mainland last year, stealing a political march on President Chen.
With two years left of his term, the president is working hard to avoid becoming a lame duck leader and getting rid of Mr Hsieh is a first step in trying to revive the DPP's fortunes.
"Thanks to the president, who agreed to my resignation as cabinet head last night, I felt greatly released and had a good sleep," Mr Hsieh said.
The premier became embroiled in a corruption probe over the construction of a subway system in the city of Kaohsiung, and even though not directly implicated in the scandal, he was mayor of the city at the time of the alleged wrongdoing and the scandal was cited by voters as the main reason why the DPP lost the local elections.
Mr Hsieh will formally resign on Monday, becoming the fourth premier to step down since President Chen took office in May 2000. Mr Chen is expected to announce a new cabinet by the end of the month.
He is likely to replace Hsieh - viewed as a moderate - with Su Tseng-Chang, Chen's former chief of staff, in a bid to shore up the president's own poor approval rating, analysts said.