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FROM THE TIME ARCHIVE Will We Have to Go to War for Taiwan? When push comes to shove, the U.S. will have to decide whether Taiwan's status quo has a future [6/22/1998]

The President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, seems to relish living on the edge. Born to a poor family in 1951, he symbolizes Taiwan's transition from Chiang's dictatorship to democracy and from a situation in which political power was dominated by refugees from the mainland to one in which native Taiwanese like himself lead the nation. Having narrowly won a second four-year term last year after surviving an apparent assassination attempt, Chen, 54, will remain in office until 2008.

Beijing can't stand him. China's leaders call him a "splittist" determined to break Taiwan away from the mainland for good. At times, Chen's rhetoric seems excessive, even in Taiwan's boisterous democracy. Voters denied him a victory in legislative elections last December, preferring parties that seek a greater accommodation with China, and since then Chen has deliberately reached out to Beijing. His overtures, however, have not been received with obvious rapture; last month China passed a law reiterating its willingness to use force should the island declare formal independence.

Though Chen summoned a million people into the streets on March 26 to protest that law, don't rule out the possibility that he may yet make a deal with Beijing. "I am a maker of history," he told TIME last year. If that turns out to be so, let's hope it's because Chen Shui-bian proves to be a force for reconciliation across the Taiwan Strait, not for war over it.

Dec. 27, 2004	Jan. 13, 2003	Apr. 5, 2004
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