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To back up that concern, Chiang last April established a special Economic Revitalization Committee. When it completes its work next month, the committee will probably recommend a wide range of reforms, including a sharp cut in business taxes, free trading in gold, an easing of foreign-exchange controls and restructured credit cooperatives.
One topic that is still too sensitive for the committee, however, is direct trade with mainland China. Indirect trade through Hong Kong is brisk. Taiwan last year exported $430 million in goods to China, up 171% from 1983. Although the government winks at the practice, which is technically illegal, many businessmen want Taipei to let them tackle the mainland market head on. "We should open an office in Hong Kong to find out what the (Chinese) need," says a Taipei businessman. But Chiang remains unimpressed with mainland economic reforms. "They are Communists, and that will never change," he says. "They used to wear Mao suits without a tie, and now they wear Western suits with a tie. And you Westerners call that a change!"
Although Chiang is generally well liked by Taiwan's 19.1 million people, his age and diabetic condition have stirred speculation about a successor. Under the constitution, Vice President Lee Teng-hui, 62, would automatically succeed if a vacancy occurred. But Lee is a native Taiwanese who did not accompany Chiang's father, Chiang Kai-shek, when the Nationalists fled to Taiwan after the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949, and he has never made it to the innermost circle of the KMT. Premier Yu Kuo-hwa, 71, who does not suffer those handicaps, has had to take much of the heat for the Tenth Credit scandal. As governor of the Central Bank before becoming Premier, he was financial czar for 15 years.
The one rumored successor in the Chiang family, Second Son Chiang Hsiao-wu, $ 40, a broadcasting executive, has suffered from being linked in the press, perhaps unfairly, with the Henry Liu affair. Besides, many in Taiwan are uncomfortable with the idea of a Chiang dynasty. For the moment, having survived the worst scandals in the KMT's 39-year rule of Taiwan, people are mostly hoping that the current Chiang remains in good health.