Chen Under Pressure

In his 2004 inaugural address, Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian pledged "to unify the people of Taiwan." It worked: Taiwan's people are now uniting against him. Amid allegations of insider trading and influence peddling involving senior aides, his son-in-law and the First Lady, Chen's public-approval rating has plunged below 20%. Faced with the threat of revolt from his own supporters, Chen last week beat a strategic retreat, announcing he would hand over day-to-day running of the government to Premier Su Tseng-chang. "He knows he's in political trouble," says Emile Sheng, a political-science professor at Soochow University in Taipei. "He's trying to do...