DATE=10/20/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=TAIWAN-CANDIDATE NUMBER=5-44556 BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO DATELINE=TAIPEI CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The race for Taiwan's presidency is heating up as the candidates head into the last few months of campaigning before the election in March. As V-O-A's Stephanie Ho reports, outspoken gadfly Li Ao -- who announced his candidacy in August -- is adding a splash of color to the staid presidential contest. TEXT: Writer, television personality and former political prisoner Li Ao prides himself on daring to say things other Taiwanese presidential candidates will not say. His outspokenness includes disagreement with Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui, on relations with China. In July, President Lee Teng, angered China by calling on it to treat the island as an equal state. Beijing considers Taiwan part of Chinese territory and renewed its threat to use force to keep the island from moving toward independence. By contrast with Taiwan's political mainstream, presidential candidate Li Ao says he advocates Beijing's one country, two systems plan -- under which Taiwan would reunify with the mainland, but maintain its own military force and democratic way of life. // LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION // I have always opposed independence for Taiwan because I think it will never happen. Taiwan independence is a good dream, but it is just a mirage. // END ACT // Li Ao says the one country, two systems proposal is taboo in Taiwan, so his opponents refuse to discuss the topic. He says he believes reunification is necessary, though, for the most basic reason that Taiwan's economy is dependent on good relations with mainland China. Despite being anti-independence, he was once imprisoned as an independence activist. In the 1970's, Taiwan's ruling Guomindang government - or K- M-T - accused Li Ao of being a supporter of Taiwan independence and put him in jail for nearly six years. He says he was framed. // LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION // I have always criticized the K-M-T. They had to find a reason to lock me up. But I am not a communist, so they had a hard time calling me a political criminal. The Taiwan independence activists said I was their colleague, so it gave the K-M-T a good, but false, reason to lock me up. // END ACT // Li Ao was born in mainland China 64 years ago. He grew up in Beijing and then moved with his family to Taiwan in 1949, at the age of 14. Earlier this month, a half-page advertisement denouncing Li Ao and several others was placed on the front page of the China Times Evening Paper. He says the issue that most angered him in the ad, was the accusation that he is more sympathetic to the Chinese government because of his background. The presidential candidate is a self-described megalomaniac. When asked about his power base, his answer is that when he looks in the mirror every day, he sees at least one supporter. // LI CHINESE ACT AND INTERPRETATION // I think if I weren't already Li Ao, I would want to be Li Ao. // END ACT // This self-confidence is not likely to translate into electoral victory, though. Li Ao himself admits that his main goal is not to win, but to use his high- profile campaign to speak out about unpopular issues. He says he hopes to garner at least seven percent of the vote. That is the minimum he would need so that the party supporting him, the New Party, can recoup from government electoral funds the 475-thousand dollars it paid for fielding him as a candidate. (signed) NEB/HO/FC/PLM 20-Oct-1999 05:22 AM EDT (20-Oct-1999 0922 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .