Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, and ideologues within the ruling Democratic Progressive Party are trying to corner Frank Hsieh, the DPP presidential candidate who has long been considered a moderate, and tying him to a radical pro-independence platform in the campaign for next March’s election - but the candidate is still trying to create some maneuvering space for himself.

President Chen, who assumed the concurrent post of party chairman in mid-October, has put his own stamp on the campaign by calling for a referendum to be held the same day as the presidential election. It asks voters whether the island should apply to join the United Nations using the name Taiwan rather than its formal name, the Republic of China. By so doing, he has made Taiwan's identity and Taiwanese independence the predominant issues in the campaign, rather than the economy.

One sign of the struggle within the ruling party was the recently adopted “normal country” resolution, brainchild of the fundamentalist Yu Shyi-kun, former DPP chairman. The resolution says that the nation should “accomplish the rectification of the name ‘Taiwan’ as soon as possible and write a new constitution.” It also emphasised the need for a referendum to “emphasise Taiwan’s independent statehood at an appropriate time.”

Tension between Chen and Hsieh exploded into the open September 29, the day before the “normal country” resolution was discussed, with Hsieh saying: “I am the master of my campaign. President Chen is the master of Taiwan’s state affairs. I have the final say on my campaign and he has the final say on state affairs.”

The next day, Hsieh was not present when the resolution was adopted. His campaign manager said he had felt “unbearable pressure” over the dispute and felt sad and indignant. In fact, Hsieh did not appear in public for two weeks but when he reappeared he seemed to have been converted by the president and publicly described the United Nations referendum as a “historic task.”

He went so far as to challenge his opponent, the Kuomintang’s Ma Ying-jeou, to a debate on this issue. When Mr. Ma responded that bread-and-butter issues were more important, Hsieh came back with the rejoinder: “Taiwan’s economy is only the symptom, the root of the problem is politics.”

Hsieh has long been viewed as a moderate within the DPP. Back in 2000, shortly after Chen won the presidency, Hsieh, who was then the mayor of Kaohsiung, tried to negotiate an exchange of visits with his counterpart in Xiamen, on the mainland. He said he wanted to use "city diplomacy" to break the impasse between the two sides and declared that "Xiamen and Kaohsiung are two cities in one country."

This implied acceptance of the "one China" concept and was especially significant since Hsieh had just been elected chairman of the DPP. However, he was denied permission by the Chen administration to travel to Xiamen and so the exchange of visits never took place. More recently, after he was appointed premier in January 2005, Hsieh announced that his approach to cross-strait relations would be characterised by “conciliation and reconciliation.”

When he resigned that December, Hsieh made it clear that he and the president had their differences on cross-strait relations. Now, having accepted President Chen’s referendum and the president’s choice of running mate, Hsieh seems to want to distance himself from the president.

After Chinese President Hu Jintao offered to sign a peace agreement with Taiwan within a “one-China” framework, Chen immediately rejected the suggestion but Hsieh said he would consider the proposal. Last Thursday, he again broke ranks with Chen by saying that he would welcome Chinese investment in Taiwan. Investment from China is good for Taiwan, he said, and “I give it my full support.”

Chen is a lame duck who is trying to get Hsieh to carry out his program as president. Hsieh should know that there can never be peace across the Taiwan Straits as long as Chen —or anyone like him — is the leader of Taiwan. The mainland may be willing to talk to a moderate Frank Hsieh.

However, if Hsieh acts and sounds like Chen, there is little likelihood that Beijing would be willing to resume a dialogue with Taiwan. If Hsieh allows Taiwan’s fundamentalists to hijack his campaign, even if he wins next March, he will have lost. For the sake of Taiwan, he must regain control over his own campaign and be his own man.