Chiang Pin-kung

Led by Kuomintang Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung, it was the KMT's first official visit since it lost power on the mainland to the communists at the end of a civil war in 1949 and fled to Taiwan, where they ruled for more than five decades.

In Taipei, the governing, independence-leaning Democratic People's Party accused Chiang of kowtowing to China. The visit came two days after hundreds of thousands of people marched in Taipei in protest over an anti-secession law.

"As the opposition party, we are willing to do what the government can't, or is unwilling to do," Chiang said.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 9, 2005
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