Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Taiwanese assassination drama, Act II
Back in March you might have heard about the "assassination" attempt on the Taiwanese president, which I blogged about as follows:
Word on the ground is that Taiwanese President ("John Fitzgerald") Chen gained tremendous sympathy and political benefit from surviving an "assassination" attempt just before the recent election he won. Consider:
- Immediately after Chen was shot, he was photographed with blood coming from his stomach region and had no apparent idea he had been struck by a bullet;
- It is being said that the bullet found in his jacket after he was rushed to hospital had not entered his body and did not match the wound;
- Chen gained tremendous sympathy from the incident and surprisingly defeated his KMT opponent by just 20,000 votes in an election that had 80% turn-out;
- the would-be assassin has not yet been identified or caught;
The PR of China - as well as nearly half the Taiwanese electorate who passionately disagree with the incumbent president's policies - can be expected to be hopping mad at the re-election of Mr Chen, an agitator for Taiwanese independence. In the cauldron of Taiwanese politics and Taiwan-China relations, this would not seem to be a good omen.
Taiwanese news reports are now saying that investigators fingered three suspects in the assassination. One suspect, the owner of the factory that makes guns identical to the "assassination" weapon, is dead. Cause of death: gunshot suicide.
The second suspect, thought to be the would-be "assassin", was an employee in the said factory. He is also dead of a drug overdose, also an apparent suicide. Investigators believe this gentleman was a gambler desparate to pay off accumulated debts.
The third suspect has disappeared.
Randomly and appropos of nothing, I wonder what Bill Clinton thinks of all this?
