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Socialist Party) were legally allowed to exist.
3.
At the end of his first year in office, President Lee Teng-hui remains in good standing; an opinion poll gave him an 81% popularity rating. Two potential candidates as rivals in the 1990 presidential election have ruled themselves out. Chiang Wego, after a bit of equivocation in. December, came out with a firm declaration that he would not run as President. In his words, "only a fool wants to be President". "Fool" seems to be a favourite word of his. He described both Churchill and Roosevelt as fools recently, adding that the only "great men" of the second world war were his father, Stalin, and Hirohito. On 1 February Premier Yu Kuo-hua announced that he would not be standing for re-election as Premier nor did he seek the Presidency.
4. On 13 January, the 25 defendants sentenced to jail turns terms for their roles in the farmers demonstration on 20 May last year had their sentences reduced.
Foreign Relations
5. On 9 January diplomatic relations were formally established between Taiwan and the Bahamas. The declaration was signed by Premier Yu Kuo-hua during his visit to the Bahamas (he later went on to Dominica and Guatemala). The new Ambassador will be Chang Ping-nan who is at present chief of the first section of the Executive Yuan and was once Ambassador to Lesotho. The Taiwan authorities have continued to float the idea of "dual recognition" in what they term a purely theoretical way. The mainland's view remains that China has "always been resolutely opposed to the establishment of any official contacts with China's Taiwan province by any country that maintains diplomatic relations with China". In addition the Taiwan authorities have been busy announcing plans for opening up large numbers of new commercial offices around the world (including they hope in some Eastern European countries). They are also looking to open "cultural centres" in major foreign cities. In Taiwan itself, the French decision to rename its office the French Institute on Taiwan, a title strongly reminiscent of that of the representation of the United States will have gladened the hearts of the Taiwan authorities. The Taiwan press reported gleefully towards the end of January that the PRC had been stung into a protest concerning Taiwan's donation of 15,000 tons of rice to Liberia. An even more significant success for Taiwan's non-official diplomacy has been the signing of a fishery cooperation agreement between Vietnam and the Fishing Ships Association of Kaohsiung. There were also rumours that a direct cargo line between Vietnam and Taiwan might be opened soon following the alleged unofficial visit of a Vietnamese Vice Minister of communications and transport to Taiwan. Taiwan was also
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